Vertical structuring.Vertical structuring has been used primarily to target early developing language forms in toddlers and has been shown to be effective when used for this purpose (Schwartz, Chapman, Terrell, Prelock, & Rowan, 1985).The fact that children often imitate adult expansions of their own utterances in typical development is the basis for the hope that children with language impairments will take these expanded models of their own intended utterances as cues for spontaneous imitation.The adult responds to a child's incomplete utterance with a contingent question (e.g., Child: "Put truck." Adult: "Where do you want the truck?").The .