Emphasis as a prompt for verbal imitation.

Cherek et al. (1970) asked if stressing certain words helps kids copy speech.

They worked with neurotypical preschoolers in a single-case design.

Adults said short sentences and put loud stress on one or two words.

Kids repeated the stressed words more often than the unstressed ones.

When adults stressed too many words, the effect disappeared.

A light touch—one clear stress—worked best.

Eussen et al. (2016) and Gonsiorowski et al. (2016) seem to disagree. They found that toddlers later diagnosed with autism imitate less, not more, even when adults use clear cues. The gap is explained by diagnosis: typical kids tune in to emphasis, while kids with autism often need extra help.

Gorgan et al. (2019) pick up the story fifty years later. They show that over-prompting creates prompt dependence—the very problem R et al. warned about when they wrote “don’t stress too many words.”

Koegel et al. (1992) extend the idea backward in age. They showed that simply delaying praise by three seconds still boosts infant babble, proving that small acoustic tweaks can shape early speech.

When you want a child to repeat a word, say it a little louder and stretch the vowel. Stop there—adding extra stress to the rest of the sentence kills the effect. This quick hack is gold for early echoic programs, circle-time songs, or any moment you need a chorus of little voices.