Months of Morphemes: A Theme-Based Cycles Approach . (2001). By Allison M. Haskill, Ann A. Tyler, & Leslie C. Tolbert. Thinking Publications, 424 Galloway St., Eau Claire, WI 54703. 320 pages, $44. Reviewed by Kathleen L. Bulloch, Anaheim, CA.

"Months of Morphemes: A Theme-Based Cycles Approach" is a language intervention program designed to be used by speech-language pathologists and educators to improve the grammatical morpheme usage of young children (3–6 years) with speech and language disorders.

This theme-based program includes detailed scripts for naturalistic, focused stimulation activities and direct-elicitation techniques. Letters and resources to encourage family participation in the intervention process and suggestions for measuring progress are included.

This program offers intervention scripts for eight frequently targeted grammatical morphemes: regular third-person singular, regular past tense, regular plurals, pronouns, irregular past tense, copula "be," possessives, and auxiliary "be."

The contents include introductory chapters that provide an overview, goals, target users, background information, and instructions on how to use the program and how to measure progress. The remainder of the program provides three cycles, each with their own theme (water, animals, and food) and materials that will carry the SLP or educator through 24 weeks, with two sessions per week. Activities include example scripts, suggested books, song lyrics, materials list, and instructions.

Appendices include sample worksheets for generating scripts, family letters, patterns for the activities, and data sheets. A bibliography and reference list complete the text.

This is a useful resource that provides several unique features for the SLP or educator. It incorporates both structured and naturalistic activities. The themes (water, animals, and food) are typically used in preschool classrooms and therefore lend themselves to the existing curriculum. The weekly parent letters assist in the home-carryover aspects of the program.

As discussed in the introduction, the text offers educators a structured and thorough language program that uses a cycles approach and a variety of elicitation and modeling techniques. This program would be particularly useful as a resource text for early childhood education classes and/or in-service training.

Beyond morphological development, the program also requires using skills in other modalities. For example, fine-motor skills, problem-solving skills, gross-motor skills, and dramatic play are incorporated in the various art, science, and story activities.

In reviewing the contents, two comments would be of note for the readers’ consideration. First, the program in its present format is a softbound text. It is difficult to reproduce parent letters and other pattern materials without bending or possibly breaking the spine of the book. Perhaps future editions could include a three-ring binder format for greater utility. Second, many of the activities require that items be made or prepared by the educator prior to delivery. For the busy clinician who has limited preparation time to review the scripts, gather materials, and practice applicable elicitation techniques, there are practical concerns associated with the utilization of the program. Therefore, it would be difficult to implement unless the resources of time and assistance in preparation were available. The contents, however, are of value in providing language intervention techniques for morphological structures.