Enhanced milieu training does not confer additional benefit over standard community interventions for toddlers with language delay

Study question: Setting: Nashville, USA.

Patients: 97 toddlers aged 24–42 months with primary language delay.

Exposure: Enhanced milieu training (EMT) compared with standard community interventions.

Outcomes: Improvement in language ability at 6 and 12 months.

Main results: Children in both the intervention and control arms showed significant improvement in language ability at 6 and 12 months. There was no significant difference between the two groups, with toddlers in both arms gaining an average of six points on the PLS-4 Auditory comprehension test Expressive subscale and seven points on the Receptive subscale. Toddlers in both arms used an average of 26 new words in a language sample.

Conclusion: EMT results in improved language ability at 6 and 12 months, but the result is not significantly better than when standard community interventions are used.