The Differential Effect of Three Naturalistic Language Interventions on Language Use in Children With Autism

Naturalistic interventions show promise for improving language in children with autism. Specific interventions differ in direct elicitation of child language and indirect language stimulation, and thus may produce different language outcomes. This study compared the effects of responsive interaction, milieu teaching, and a combined intervention on the type and communicative function of expressive language in two preschoolers with autism using a randomized alternating treatments design. Milieu teaching led to more overall language, prompted language, and requests than responsive interaction. Responsive interaction led to more comments than milieu teaching. The combined intervention was similar to milieu teaching for prompted language and requests and responsive interaction for child comments. Implications for treatment of language deficits in autism are discussed.