The paper describes methods of natural language enhancement which both teachers and parents can use with young children who have language delays. The importance of connecting language to meaningful, functional communication is stressed. The reinforcement for the child becomes the adult's natural and spontaneous response. Adults, then, must prove to children that words work. Expansion, one method of language enhancement, builds the child's immature responses into more mature syntax. Parallel talk is another technique, in which adults supply children with short phrases describing their actions. Parents and teachers use self-talk when they describe their own thoughts and actions in short phrases and sentences, thus modeling language. A fourth language stimulaton method is providing as many experiences as possible with concrete objects in relation to natural, meaningful situations at school or in the home. (CL)