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Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis logoLink to Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
. 1975 Winter;8(4):411–420. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1975.8-411

Incidental teaching of language in the preschool1

Betty Hart 1, Todd R Risley 1
PMCID: PMC1311874  PMID: 16795506

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.

Keywords: disadvantaged children, language, compound sentences, incidental teaching, spontaneous speech, verbal training

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Hart B. M., Risley T. R. Establishing use of descriptive adjectives in the spontaneous speech of disadvantaged preschool children. J Appl Behav Anal. 1968 Summer;1(2):109–120. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1968.1-109. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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