15-30 months

1.5-2.0 MLU

combine basic words: most juice, my toy

• stage 1

• stage 2

• stage 3

• stage 4

28-36 months

2.0-2.5 MLU

present progressive (-ing endings on verbs)

me walking

in, on

-regular -s plurals (toys)

• stage 2

• stage 3

• stage 4

• stage 5

36-42 months

2.5-3.0 MLU

irregular past tense (fell, sat)

-s possessives (doggie's)

uncontractible copula (are they there? is she coming?)

• stage 2

• stage 3

• stage 5

• stage 6

adult breaks a sentence down into its constituent parts and then build it back up

ex. Child: "Ball"/ Adult: "I'm rolling the big ball to you. The bill ball! Rolling the big ball. I'm rolling. I'm rolling the big ball. I'm rolling the big ball to you!"

• build up/break down

• sentence recasts

• extensions

• recasts

characterized by the omission of an item

ex. Mary ate some fudge brownies, and Bob ____ some peanuts

• ellipsis

• demonstration

• substitution

• expansions

repeated but variable use of a sentence or text pattern

ex. sentence pattern: the girl walked home, the cat walked home, everyone walked home (emphasizing the past tense -ed)

• expansions

• expatiations

• demonstration

• substitution

40-46 months

3.0-3.7 MLU

articles (a, the)

regular past tense (-ed, jumped)

third person regular present (swims, goes)

• stage 4

• stage 3

• stage 5

• stage 1

contingent verbal responses that increase the length or complexity of the child's utterance

ex. Child: "doggy"

Clinician: "That is a doggy"

• expansions

• expatiations

• demonstration

• ellipsis

contingent verbal responses that add new but relevant information to the child's utterance

ex. Child: "Doggy"

Clinician: "That is a friendly doggy"

• expatiations

• expansions

• demonstration

• ellipsis

the clinician asks questions to construct a syntactically complete sentence

ex. Child: "doggy"

Clinician: "What is the doggy's name?"

Child: "Bubba"

Clinician: "The doggy's name is Bubba"

• vertical structures

• prompts/questions

• expatiations

• focused stimulation