Effects of the ABC intervention on foster children's receptive vocabulary: Follow-up results from a randomized clinical trial

Children with histories of maltreatment and disrupted care are at higher risk of early language delays. In a randomized trial, infants involved with child welfare whose parents received Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC), a brief intervention to improve parent-child interactions, had better receptive vocabulary at age three than those whose parents received a control intervention. The findings highlight how important parental responsiveness is for language development in these children.