Language Delay and the Effect of Milieu Teaching on Children Born Cocaine Exposed: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Children born prenatally exposed to cocaine are at-risk for poor developmental outcome, particularly in the domain of language development. The current pilot study was designed to examine feasibility and efficacy of a Milieu Teaching (MT) paradigm on the language development of children prenatally exposed to cocaine. Four children enrolled in an early intervention program were given 16 weeks of a MT language intervention, provided by an interventionist, and focused on the elicitation of both single and multi-spontaneous word production. Results indicated that from baseline to the end of the intervention, students made encouraging progress. This was demonstrated in both videotaped interactions and on the Receptive–Expressive Emergent Language Test (REEL). These results were particularly significant given results of previous cohorts on the REEL. Finally, discussion is presented concerning feasibility of MT and its true efficacy in children born prenatally exposed to cocaine.