Structuring Joint Action Routines: A Strategy for Facilitating Communication and Language Development in the Classroom

Abstract

The study of early child language has produced a wealth of new data and con­comitant theories over the past decade, and these new perspectives offer important im­plications to those of us engaged in clinical practice. We have noted elsewhere that this current literature on early child language has specific implications for designing ap­propriate targets, contexts, and procedures for language therapy (McLean and Snyder-­McLean, 1978; McLean, Snyder-McLean, and Sack, 1983). In this article, we will con­centrate on these two latter areas: contexts and procedures for language intervention and, more specifically, on the combination of these elements in the form of structured joint action routines.