Interactive strategies used by early childhood educators to facilitate conversation with preschoolers with and without language delays

An advantage of integrating children with language delay into community childcare settings is that conversational interactions with teachers may provide the impetus for developmental progress in language acquisition. However, studies of teachers' language to children in segregated settings reveal that teacher talk may be directive, lack many language models, and provide few attended conversational opportunities. This study compared the structural features, complexity, and conversational features of teacher input to an integrated group (which included one child with language delay) and a typical group (all typically developing children). Comparisons were also made between two childcare contexts, book reading and playdough. Results revealed the language addressed to the child with language delay was directive and not finely tuned to the child's language level. Playdough promoted teacher-child interaction that was less directive, and more interaction promoting than book reading. Clinical implications include training teachers to use input that promotes interaction and descriptive language models.