Teaching young nonverbal children with autism useful speech: a pilot study of the Denver Model and PROMPT interventions.

Ten preschoolers with autism who had no words got two kinds of help. Half used the Denver Model. Half got PROMPT tactile cues on their lips and jaw. All parents practiced at home every day. The team counted how many new real words each child said after twelve weeks.

Clinic visits happened twice a week. Parents joined each session and got short homework. Kids earned toys and praise for any clear attempt to speak.

Eight out of ten children left the study with at least five new words they used on their own. Both the Denver group and the PROMPT group gained words at the same pace. No child lost words at the six-week check.

Parents said the home practice fit into daily routines like meals and bath time.

Naresh et al. (2020) later showed the same kind of jump using a parent-taught VB-MAPP program with eighty-five kids. Their bigger sample backs up the small pilot: parents can drive early speech gains.

Saunders et al. (1988) taught sign plus speech and also saw most kids keep the words six months later. The 2006 study proves speech-only routes work too, so you can pick either path.

Kay et al. (2020) and Galtress et al. (2012) fine-tune prompting for kids who already talk. The 2006 paper starts earlier — it shows how to get the first words out.

If you serve nonverbal preschoolers, you now have two proven speech kick-starters that parents can run at home. Pick Denver Model for play-based routines or PROMPT for tactile cues, then coach caregivers to practice five minutes at each meal. Either way, you can expect new functional words within three months without adding extra clinic hours.