Evaluating two different dose frequencies and cumulative intervention intensities to improve past tense production for early school‐aged children with developmental language disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel D. Calder ◽  
Mary Claessen ◽  
Suze Leitão ◽  
Susan Ebbels
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorder ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Early School

scholarly journals Explicit Grammar Intervention in Young School-Aged Children With Developmental Language Disorder: An Efficacy Study Using Single-Case Experimental Design

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel D. Calder ◽  
Mary Claessen ◽  
Susan Ebbels ◽  
Suze Leitão
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Early School ◽  
Explicit Grammar

Purpose This study evaluated the efficacy of an explicit, combined metalinguistic training and grammar facilitation intervention aimed at improving regular past tense marking for nine children aged 5;10–6;8 (years;months) with developmental language disorder. Method This study used an ABA across-participant multiple-baseline single-case experimental design. Participants were seen one-on-one twice a week for 20- to 30-min sessions for 10 weeks and received explicit grammar intervention combining metalinguistic training using the SHAPE CODING system with grammar facilitation techniques (a systematic cueing hierarchy). In each session, 50 trials to produce the target form were completed, resulting in a total of 1,000 trials over 20 individual therapy sessions. Repeated measures of morphosyntax were collected using probes, including trained past tense verbs, untrained past tense verbs, third-person singular verbs as an extension probe, and possessive 's as a control probe. Probing contexts included expressive morphosyntax and grammaticality judgment. Outcome measures also included pre–poststandard measures of expressive and receptive grammar. Results Analyses of repeated measures demonstrated significant improvement in past tense production on trained verbs (eight of nine children) and untrained verbs (seven of nine children), indicating efficacy of the treatment. These gains were maintained for 5 weeks. The majority of children made significant improvement on standardized measures of expressive grammar (eight of nine children). Only five of nine children improved on grammaticality judgment or receptive measures. Conclusion Results continue to support the efficacy of explicit grammar interventions to improve past tense marking in early school-aged children. Future research should aim to evaluate the efficacy of similar interventions with group comparison studies and determine whether explicit grammar interventions can improve other aspects of grammatical difficulty for early school-aged children with developmental language disorder. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.11958771

scholarly journals The Efficacy of an Explicit Intervention Approach to Improve Past Tense Marking for Early School-Age Children With Developmental Language Disorder

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Samuel D. Calder ◽  
Mary Claessen ◽  
Susan Ebbels ◽  
Suze Leitão
Keyword(s):  
Language Disorder ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
School Age ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Standardized Measures ◽  
Early School ◽  
Early School Age

Purpose The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of a theoretically motivated explicit intervention approach to improve regular past tense marking for early school-age children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Twenty-one children with DLD (ages 5;9–6;9 [years;months]) were included in a crossover randomized controlled trial (intervention, n = 10; waiting control, n = 11). Intervention included once-weekly sessions over 10 weeks using the SHAPE CODING system, in combination with a systematic cueing hierarchy to teach past tense marking. Once the first group completed intervention, the waiting control group crossed over to the intervention condition. The primary outcome was criterion-referenced measures of past tense marking with standardized measures of expressive and receptive grammar as the secondary outcome. Ancillary analyses on extension and behavioral control measures of morphosyntax were also conducted. Results There was a significant Time × Group interaction ( p < .001) with a significant difference in pre–post intervention improvement in favor of the intervention group ( p < .001, d = 3.03). Further analysis once both groups had received the intervention revealed no improvement for either group on past tense production during the 5-week pre-intervention period, significant improvement pre–post intervention ( p < . 001, d = 1.22), with gains maintained for 5 weeks postintervention. No significant differences were found on pre- to postintervention standardized measures of grammar, or on extension or control measures. Conclusions The efficacy of the theoretically motivated explicit grammar intervention was demonstrated. Results contribute to the evidence base supporting this intervention to improve past tense production in early school-age children with DLD, suggesting it is a viable option for clinicians to select when treating morphosyntactic difficulties for this population. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13345202

scholarly journals Combining implicit and explicit intervention approaches to target grammar in young children with Developmental Language Disorder

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel D Calder ◽  
Mary Claessen ◽  
Suze Leitão
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Comparison Research ◽  
Shape Coding ◽  
Speech Pathologist ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

Children with Developmental Language Disorder are likely to experience difficulties with morphosyntax, especially regular past tense marking. Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of intervention to improve morphosyntax in young school-aged children with DLD. This study investigated the efficacy of combined explicit and implicit intervention techniques delivered by a speech pathologist to improve receptive and expressive grammar, including the use of past tense morphosyntax, using a multiple baseline single case experimental design. Participants were aged six to seven years and received two 1:1 45 minute sessions per week for five weeks (total 7.5 hours) using Shape Coding intervention techniques combined with implicit approaches. Two of the three participants made statistically significant gains on standardized tests of general receptive and expressive grammar. Two of the three children made statistically significant improvement on measures of expressive morphosyntax, with one participant continuing to improve five weeks post treatment. Findings suggest that this approach was efficacious. These findings warrant further investigation using larger group comparison research studies.

scholarly journals Comparing Tense and Agreement Productivity in Boys With Fragile X Syndrome, Children With Developmental Language Disorder, and Children With Typical Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1181-1194
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Hilvert ◽  
Jill Hoover ◽  
Audra Sterling ◽  
Susen Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Fragile X Syndrome ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Fragile X ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Typical Development ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Complicated Pattern ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Purpose This study compared and characterized the tense and agreement productivity of boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS), children with developmental language disorder (DLD), and children with typical development (TD) matched on mean length of utterance. Method Twenty-two boys with FXS ( M age = 12.22 years), 19 children with DLD ( M age = 4.81 years), and 20 children with TD ( M age = 3.23 years) produced language samples that were coded for their productive use of five tense markers (i.e., third-person singular, past tense –ed , copula BE , auxiliary BE , and auxiliary DO ) using the tense and agreement productivity score. Children also completed norm-referenced cognitive and linguistic assessments. Results Children with DLD generally used tense and agreement markers less productively than children with TD, particularly third-person singular and auxiliary BE . However, boys with FXS demonstrated a more complicated pattern of productivity, where they were similar to children with DLD and TD, depending on the tense marker examined. Results revealed that children with DLD and TD showed a specific developmental sequence of the individual tense markers that aligns with patterns documented by previous studies, whereas boys with FXS demonstrated a more even profile of productivity. Conclusions These findings help to further clarify areas of overlap and discrepancy in tense and agreement productivity among boys with FXS and children with DLD. Additional clinical implications of these results are discussed.

The language phenotype of a small geographically isolated Russian-speaking population: Implications for genetic and clinical studies of developmental language disorder

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 971-1003 ◽  
Author(s):  
NATALIA RAKHLIN ◽  
SERGEY A. KORNILOV ◽  
DEAN PALEJEV ◽  
ROMAN A. KOPOSOV ◽  
JOSEPH T. CHANG ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Studies ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Heterogeneous Structure ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

ABSTRACTThis article describes the results of an epidemiological study of developmental language disorder (DLD) in an isolated rural Russian population. We report an atypically high prevalence of DLD across all age groups when contrasted with a comparison population. The results are corroborated by a set of comparisons of school-aged children from the target population with their age peers and mean length of utterance matches from the comparison population. We also investigate the relationship between nonverbal cognition, verbal working memory, and expressive language performance in the population, and find statistically significant but small effect sizes. Finally, we describe the complex and heterogeneous structure of the phenotype in the population along with patterns of its vertical transmission on the basis of the exemplar pedigrees, and discuss the implications of our findings for genetic and clinical studies of DLD.

scholarly journals Changes in English Past Tense Use by Bilingual School-Age Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (10) ◽  
pp. 2532-2546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy F. Jacobson ◽  
Yan H. Yu
Keyword(s):  
Analysis Of Variance ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Ability Group ◽  
Repeated Measures Analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine changes in English past tense accuracy and errors among Spanish–English bilingual children with typical development (TD) and developmental language disorder (DLD).MethodThirty-three children were tested before and after 1 year to examine changes in clinically relevant English past tense errors using an elicited production task. A mixed-model linear regression using age as a continuous variable revealed a robust effect for age. A 4-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted with age (young, old) and language ability group (TD, DLD) as between-subjects variables, time (Time 1, Time 2) and verb type (regular, irregular, and novel verbs) as within-subject variables, and percent accuracy as the dependent variable. Subsequently, a 4-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted to measure the overall distribution of verb errors across 2 time points.ResultsOverall, children produced regular and novel verb past tense forms with higher accuracy than irregular past tense verbs in an elicitation task. Children with TD were more accurate than children with DLD. Younger children made more improvement than older children from Time 1 to Time 2, especially in the regular and novel verb conditions. Bare stem and overregularization were the most common errors across all groups. Errors consisting of stem + ing were more common in children with DLD than those with TD in the novel verb condition.DiscussionContrary to an earlier report (Jacobson & Schwartz, 2005), the relative greater difficulty with regular and novel verbs was replaced by greater difficulty for irregular past tense, a pattern consistent with monolingual impairment. Age was a contributing factor, particularly for younger children with DLD who produced more stem + ing errors in the novel verb condition. For all children, and particularly for those with DLD, an extended period for irregular past tense learning was evident. The results support a usage-based theory of language acquisition and impairment.

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