The Effects of School Libraries on Language Skills: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in India

Purpose Research has indicated that interactive shared book reading can support a wide range of early language skills and that children who are read to regularly in the early years learn language faster, enter school with a larger vocabulary, and become more successful readers at school. Despite the large volume of research suggesting interactive shared reading is beneficial for language development, two fundamental issues remain outstanding: whether shared book reading interventions are equally effective (a) for children from all socioeconomic backgrounds and (b) for a range of language skills. Method To address these issues, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to investigate the effects of two 6-week interactive shared reading interventions on a range of language skills in children across the socioeconomic spectrum. One hundred and fifty children aged between 2;6 and 3;0 (years;months) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a pause reading, a dialogic reading, or an active shared reading control condition. Results The findings indicated that the interventions were effective at changing caregiver reading behaviors. However, the interventions did not boost children's language skills over and above the effect of an active reading control condition. There were also no effects of socioeconomic status. Conclusion This randomized controlled trial showed that caregivers from all socioeconomic backgrounds successfully adopted an interactive shared reading style. However, while the interventions were effective at increasing caregivers' use of interactive shared book reading behaviors, this did not have a significant impact on the children's language skills. The findings are discussed in terms of practical implications and future research. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12420539

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Improving the General Language Skills of Second-Language Learners in Kindergarten: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness ◽

10.1080/19345747.2016.1171935 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 9 (sup1) ◽

pp. 150-170 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Kristin Rogde ◽

Monica Melby-Lervåg ◽

Arne Lervåg

Keyword(s):

Randomized Controlled Trial ◽

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Language Skills ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Randomized Controlled

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The Effects of Reading and Language Intervention on Literacy Skills in Children in a Remote Community: A Randomized Controlled Trial

10.31234/osf.io/n6u7s ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Carol Mesa ◽

Dianne Newbury ◽

Marysia Nash ◽

Paula Clarke ◽

Rosanne Esposito ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Randomized Controlled Trial ◽

Word Reading ◽

Language Skills ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Intervention Group ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

Language Intervention ◽

Language And Literacy ◽

Randomized Controlled

This study evaluated the effects of a reading and language intervention, for low-income children living in a remote Chilean community, using a randomized controlled trial. At the beginning of the study, participants were allocated to the intervention (n = 34) or waiting control (n = 34) minimizing on a composite language measure and age. Children in the intervention group received a 27-week program aimed at fostering code-related, word reading and oral language skills. Children’s progress in language and literacy was monitored at four time points: pre-, mid- post-intervention, and at delayed follow-up 9-months after the intervention had ceased. At the end of the intervention, children in the intervention group scored showed improvements compared to the waiting group on pre-literacy, reading, language, and reading comprehension measures (effect sizes d >.25). The gains in pre-literacy skills, word reading and word knowledge were maintained at 9-month delayed follow-up, though the improvements in language and reading comprehension were not. Intervention programs designed to support literacy and language skills in remote communities can be delivered successfully by trained assistants. Our findings inform the future provision of language and literacy programs in populations living in isolated areas.

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Treatment Fidelity Procedures for an Aphasia Intervention Within a Randomized Controlled Trial: Design, Feasibility, and Results

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/2019_ajslp-cac48-18-0227 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (1S) ◽

pp. 412-424

Author(s):

Elissa L. Conlon ◽

Emily J. Braun ◽

Edna M. Babbitt ◽

Leora R. Cherney

Keyword(s):

Randomized Controlled Trial ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Treatment Protocol ◽

Treatment Fidelity ◽

Protocol Adherence ◽

Study Condition ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Aphasia Therapy ◽

Percent Accuracy ◽

Over Time

Purpose This study reports on the treatment fidelity procedures implemented during a 5-year randomized controlled trial comparing intensive and distributed comprehensive aphasia therapy. Specifically, the results of 1 treatment, verb network strengthening treatment (VNeST), are examined. Method Eight participants were recruited for each of 7 consecutive cohorts for a total of 56 participants. Participants completed 60 hr of aphasia therapy, including 15 hr of VNeST. Two experienced speech-language pathologists delivered the treatment. To promote treatment fidelity, the study team developed a detailed manual of procedures and fidelity checklists, completed role plays to standardize treatment administration, and video-recorded all treatment sessions for review. To assess protocol adherence during treatment delivery, trained research assistants not involved in the treatment reviewed video recordings of a subset of randomly selected VNeST treatment sessions and completed the fidelity checklists. This process was completed for 32 participants representing 2 early cohorts and 2 later cohorts, which allowed for measurement of protocol adherence over time. Percent accuracy of protocol adherence was calculated across clinicians, cohorts, and study condition (intensive vs. distributed therapy). Results The fidelity procedures were sufficient to promote and verify a high level of adherence to the treatment protocol across clinicians, cohorts, and study condition. Conclusion Treatment fidelity strategies and monitoring are feasible when incorporated into the study design. Treatment fidelity monitoring should be completed at regular intervals during the course of a study to ensure that high levels of protocol adherence are maintained over time and across conditions.

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Phonomotor Versus Semantic Feature Analysis Treatment for Anomia in 58 Persons With Aphasia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2019_jslhr-l-18-0257 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 62 (12) ◽

pp. 4464-4482 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Diane L. Kendall ◽

Megan Oelke Moldestad ◽

Wesley Allen ◽

Janaki Torrence ◽

Stephen E. Nadeau

Keyword(s):

Randomized Controlled Trial ◽

Response Latency ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Semantic Knowledge ◽

Semantic Feature ◽

Feature Analysis ◽

Group Differences ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Confrontation Naming ◽

Semantic Feature Analysis

Purpose The ultimate goal of anomia treatment should be to achieve gains in exemplars trained in the therapy session, as well as generalization to untrained exemplars and contexts. The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of phonomotor treatment, a treatment focusing on enhancement of phonological sequence knowledge, against semantic feature analysis (SFA), a lexical-semantic therapy that focuses on enhancement of semantic knowledge and is well known and commonly used to treat anomia in aphasia. Method In a between-groups randomized controlled trial, 58 persons with aphasia characterized by anomia and phonological dysfunction were randomized to receive 56–60 hr of intensively delivered treatment over 6 weeks with testing pretreatment, posttreatment, and 3 months posttreatment termination. Results There was no significant between-groups difference on the primary outcome measure (untrained nouns phonologically and semantically unrelated to each treatment) at 3 months posttreatment. Significant within-group immediately posttreatment acquisition effects for confrontation naming and response latency were observed for both groups. Treatment-specific generalization effects for confrontation naming were observed for both groups immediately and 3 months posttreatment; a significant decrease in response latency was observed at both time points for the SFA group only. Finally, significant within-group differences on the Comprehensive Aphasia Test–Disability Questionnaire ( Swinburn, Porter, & Howard, 2004 ) were observed both immediately and 3 months posttreatment for the SFA group, and significant within-group differences on the Functional Outcome Questionnaire ( Glueckauf et al., 2003 ) were found for both treatment groups 3 months posttreatment. Discussion Our results are consistent with those of prior studies that have shown that SFA treatment and phonomotor treatment generalize to untrained words that share features (semantic or phonological sequence, respectively) with the training set. However, they show that there is no significant generalization to untrained words that do not share semantic features or phonological sequence features.

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