Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers: The Feasibility of a Caregiver-Implemented Telehealth Model.

Purpose: This feasibility study examined a caregiver-implemented telehealth model of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) protocol. We asked whether caregivers could reach fidelity on VAULT, if the protocol was socially and ecologically valid, and if late-talking toddlers could learn new words with this model.

Method: Five late-talking monolingual and bilingual toddlers and four caregivers participated.

A Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers Treatment Efficacy Study: The Effect of Input Utterance Length and Identification of Responder Profiles.

Purpose This study examined the efficacy of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment in a version that manipulated the length of clinician utterance in which a target word was presented (dose length). The study also explored ways to characterize treatment responders versus nonresponders. Method Nineteen primarily English-speaking late-talking toddlers (aged 24-34 months at treatment onset) received VAULT and were quasirandomly assigned to have target words presented in grammatical utterances matching one of two lengths: brief (four words or fewer) or extended (five words or more).

Exploring Input Parameters in an Expressive Vocabulary Treatment With Late Talkers.

Purpose The aims of this study were (a) to assess the efficacy of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment and (b) to compare treatment outcomes for expressive vocabulary acquisition in late talkers in 2 conditions: 3 target words/90 doses per word per session versus 6 target words/45 doses per word per session. Method We ran the treatment protocol for 16 sessions with 24 primarily monolingual English-speaking late talkers. We calculated a score for each child, compared treatment to control effect sizes, and assessed the number of words per week children acquired outside treatment.