Major focus area

Speech Therapy -> Expressive Language

Short description

Indirect language stimulation (ILS) is a child-centered strategy that helps children learn language by using everyday activities to describe what they are seeing, doing, and feeling (Hubbell, 1977; Fey, 1986; Murray & Hornbaker 1997). ILS is often used with children whose language is beginning to emerge and encompasses several techniques, including self-talk, parallel talk, reversed imitation, expansion, extension, recasting, buildups, and breakdowns.

Long description

Indirect language stimulation (ILS) is a child-centered strategy that helps children learn language by using everyday activities to describe what they are seeing, doing, and feeling (Hubbell, 1977; Fey, 1986; Murray & Hornbaker 1997). ILS is often used with children whose language is beginning to emerge and encompasses several techniques, including self talk, parallel talk, reversed imitation, expansion, extension, recasting, buildups, and breakdowns. Self talk: adult describes their own activities during play. Parallel talk: adult describes child’s actions during play. Reversed imitation: adult imitates what the child says. Expansion: adult “expands” child’s incomplete utterance into a grammatically correct utterance. Extension: adult adds new information to what child says. Recasting: adult repeats child’s incorrect utterance, but with the errors corrected. Buildups and breakdowns: adult expands child’s utterance and then breaks it down into several phrase-sized pieces in a series of sequential utterances that overlap in content.