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Journal List > J Appl Behav Anal > v.8(4); Winter 1975

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J Appl Behav Anal. 1975 Winter; 8(4): 411–420.
doi: 10.1901/jaba.1975.8-411.
PMCID: PMC1311874
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Incidental teaching of language in the preschool1
Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley
The University of Kansas
1This research was supported by a grant (HD-03144) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the University of Kansas. Data analysis was aided by the Office of Education through the Kansas Center for Research in Early Childhood Education. The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Cordelia Murphy and Nancy Reynolds, the teachers; and of Maxine Preuitt, Ella Murphy, and Lorene Barnett, the observers. The data were processed with the aid of the staff and facilities at the University of Kansas Computation Center. Reprints may be obtained from the Living Environments Group, care of Todd R. Risley, Department of Human Development, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045.
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Abstract
“Incidental teaching” denotes a process whereby language skills of labelling and describing are learned in naturally occurring adult-child interactions. In the present study, 15-min daily samples of the spontaneous speech of 11 children were recorded during free play over eight months of preschool. After incidental teaching of compound sentences, increases in unprompted use of compound sentences were seen for all the children, first directed to teachers, and then to children, in accordance with who attended to the children's requests for play materials. The incidental teaching procedure also stimulated spontaneous variety in speech, and appears to have general applicability to child learning settings.
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Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
  • Hart Betty M, Risley Todd R. Establishing use of descriptive adjectives in the spontaneous speech of disadvantaged preschool children. J Appl Behav Anal. 1968 Summer;1(2):109–120. [PubMed]
  • Hart B, Risley TR. Using preschool materials to modify the language of disadvantaged children. J Appl Behav Anal. 1974 Summer;7(2):243–256. [PubMed]
  • Risley T, Wolf M. Establishing functional speech in echolalic children. Behav Res Ther. 1967 May;5(2):73–88. [PubMed]
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