Examining the use of recommended language intervention practices in early childhood special education classrooms. Topics in Early Childhood

Two studies were conducted to describe the extent to which recom-mended language intervention practices were implemented in preschool classrooms serving young children with disabilities and to investigate the relationships between children's observed level of exposure to those practices and their language outcomes. Study 1 was a descriptive study of the amount and type of language training received by 5 9 children in 2 6 preschool c lassrooms. Repeated observations of these children over a 4-month period revealed that children exposed to higher levels of rec-ommended practices had higher rates of engagement and verbalizations. Study 2 was a process-product study that examined the relationship between children's gain on language measures and their level of exposure to recommended practices. Results showed that children who made greater language gains were more likely to be in c lassrooms that pro-vided more frequent exposure to recommended language intervention strategies. Implications for training and research are discussed. Developing and implementing effective strategies to facilitate the acquisition of functional communication in young children with disabilities is an important goal for researchers and practitioners in early childhood special education. Acquisition of language is one of the defining characteristics of early childhood, and the delay or absence of language is often the first sign to parents and profession-als that a child may have a developmental problem. Unremediate