Treating Complex Grammar Knowledge Deficits in School-Age Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Description

The goal of this project is to compare the relative effectiveness of two novel treatments to improve the complex grammar knowledge of school-age (8-11-year-old) children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Treatment 1 is an implicit approach to promoting children's automatic grammar learning and Treatment 2 is a more conventional explicit approach in which participants are taught the rules underlying the grammar. Treatment 1 involves children listening to an examiner produce a target sentence 20 times during each training session while describing a picture. The children will then see a picture and be asked to describe the action taking place. Treatment 2 involves children listening to an examiner describe the action occurring in a picture using a sentence pattern targeted to the child's deficit. The child will then be asked who did the action in the sentence and who received the action, after which the examiner will provide specific feedback about why the child's response was correct or incorrect. The expectation is that over a short period children will begin to use their targeted sentence pattern after hearing the examiner produce it many times. Children will complete four outcome measures (syntactic knowledge, sentence comprehension, sentence chunking, narrative comprehension/ production) prior to treatment, immediately after treatment, and five weeks after treatment. Children will be randomly assigned to one of the two treatments. Both treatments will be delivered 20 times over 10 weeks. The investigators anticipate that the children receiving Treatment 1 will show stronger gains in knowledge across the four outcome measures.

Conditions

Developmental Language Disorders

Study Overview

Study Details

Study overview

The goal of this project is to compare the relative effectiveness of two novel treatments to improve the complex grammar knowledge of school-age (8-11-year-old) children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Treatment 1 is an implicit approach to promoting children's automatic grammar learning and Treatment 2 is a more conventional explicit approach in which participants are taught the rules underlying the grammar. Treatment 1 involves children listening to an examiner produce a target sentence 20 times during each training session while describing a picture. The children will then see a picture and be asked to describe the action taking place. Treatment 2 involves children listening to an examiner describe the action occurring in a picture using a sentence pattern targeted to the child's deficit. The child will then be asked who did the action in the sentence and who received the action, after which the examiner will provide specific feedback about why the child's response was correct or incorrect. The expectation is that over a short period children will begin to use their targeted sentence pattern after hearing the examiner produce it many times. Children will complete four outcome measures (syntactic knowledge, sentence comprehension, sentence chunking, narrative comprehension/ production) prior to treatment, immediately after treatment, and five weeks after treatment. Children will be randomly assigned to one of the two treatments. Both treatments will be delivered 20 times over 10 weeks. The investigators anticipate that the children receiving Treatment 1 will show stronger gains in knowledge across the four outcome measures.

Treating Complex Sentences in Children With DLD

Treating Complex Grammar Knowledge Deficits in School-Age Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Condition
Developmental Language Disorders
Intervention / Treatment

-

Contacts and Locations

Tucson

University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States, 85721

Athens

Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, United States, 45701

Logan

Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States, 84322

Morgantown

West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States, 26506

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

For general information about clinical research, read Learn About Studies.

Eligibility Criteria

  • * Language impairment: standard score of 34 or lower on the Test of Language and Learning Skills
  • * Nonverbal IQ: nonverbal quotient of 77 or higher
  • * Normal range hearing
  • * Normal or corrected vision
  • * Native English speaker
  • * Sentence comprehension screening/sentence chunking screening 50% or lower
  • * Neurodevelopmental disorder
  • * Emotional/behavioral disorder
  • * Frank neurological disorder
  • * Treatment for complex syntax from outside clinician

Ages Eligible for Study

8 Years to 11 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Collaborators and Investigators

Ohio University,

Study Record Dates

2027-10-15