ETS Form 1 Practice Exam

The main idea here is that the most effective early language intervention for at‑risk infants happens when primary caregivers are trained to support learning during everyday interactions. Language develops best in natural, responsive conversations, not in isolated sessions with a therapist. When caregivers learn strategies—like following the infant’s lead, labeling objects during routines, expanding on what the child says, and providing timely, back-and-forth talk—they create a language-rich environment across daily activities. This approach increases the infant’s opportunities for meaningful communication, supports joint attention and turn-taking, and is practical and scalable for families. Interventions delivered mainly by clinicians alone, while valuable, don’t reach the child in the contexts where learning occurs most often and can limit generalization. Focusing only on object permanence misses the essential language-target here, since the goal is to boost communicative development, not a single cognitive skill. And downplaying the role of social communication in play ignores the core interactions that drive language growth, such as responsive signaling, shared enjoyment, and back-and-forth exchange.