Children with language delays often manifest low rates of self-initiated expressive language, particularly in school settings. Children with mild to moderate language delays appear to develop this pattern as a means of coping with situations in which they believe they are unable to perform or may perform poorly. Interactive language training procedures are now being used to successfully increase syntactic complexity, develop morphology, and train transformational rules in language delayed or disordered children. The linguistic and nonlinguistic strategies used in interactive language training not only foster language acquisition, but are useful in increasing spontaneous language as well. Linguistic strategies entail use of repeats, imitation and modeling, indirect commands, questions, paraphrases, sentence completion, and development of feedback skills while nonlinquistic strategies include violation of routine events, withholding objects or turns, and violation of object function. These techniques can be used effectively by both parents and educators who now share the responsibility of language intervention with speech clinicians. By increasing the child's rates of self-initiated speech, it becomes more probable that improvements in the content, use, and form of language will follow. (Author/VW)