Purpose: This investigation aimed to improve the vocabulary for expressing emotional states (feeling words) using vocabulary instruction with Spaced-Retrieval intervention in bilingual Spanish/English-speaking children exposed to trauma. Method: Three participants, ages 9:2 (P1), 8:4 (P2), and 7:10 (P3), were included in the ABA single-subject withdrawal design. P1 and P2 had environmental trauma, and P3 had a diagnosis of medical trauma. Baseline data using a stability envelope were obtained before implementing the intervention (three data points), followed by repeated measures. The investigator collected data on emotional-state-feeling words presented randomly at the beginning of each session. The intervention phase included five sessions and the withdrawal phase (three data points). Results: The results of the current study revealed that the application of Vocabulary Instruction using Spaced Retrieval Intervention was a successful intervention technique to increase the emotional state vocabulary of three students with trauma. Two participants demonstrated a statistically significant difference from baseline to intervention. The third participant experienced a statistically significant difference between experimental conditions indicating more rapid improvement in increasing the vocabulary with SR intervention. Conclusion: This investigation substatiates prior research with different populations, suggesting that Vocabulary Instruction using Spaced Retrieval intervention effectively improved expressive vocabulary. This research should be further explored across other ethnicities, language, ages, communicative disorders, and related trauma utilizing a larger sample.
