The Effect of Prior Learning on Treatment of Morpheme Errors

NCT ID: NCT05953077

Last Updated: 2024-08-26

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 32 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-02-01
• Study Completion Date: 2025-04-30

Brief Summary

This is a small-scale treatment study designed to determine which teaching methods result in the best learning. Treatment focuses on helping children with a developmental language disorder learn parts of grammar. Preschool children will receive assessments to determine whether they have a developmental language disorder and what parts of grammar they have not mastered. Children will receive one-on-one behavioral treatment over a six week period. Half of the children will be first taught a grammatical form they sometimes use and then one they rarely use. The other half will start with a grammatical form they rarely use. The study seeks to determine whether starting with something children sometimes use correctly (an easier part of speech) will speed later learning of something that is harder for them. The children's ability to use the grammatical forms taught to them will be assessed throughout the treatment period and approximately six weeks after treatment ends.

Conditions

Developmental Language Disorder

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Easy first

Children are treated for an emergent grammatical form that is used correctly at least 60% during three pre-treatment probe sessions. This form is treated until children generalize it's use an average of 90% or more across 3 probe sessions. Their treatment target is then switched to a grammatical form that is used less than 30% correct across 3 pre-treatment probe sessions.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Conversational recasting

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The treatment procedure uses 24 treatment doses embedded into child-friendly activities (crafts, book reading, play). Each each consists of a clinician eliciting use of a targeted grammatical form, a child's attempt (correct or incorrect) to use that form, and an immediate clinician repetition of the child's attempt (a recast), correcting any ungrammatical elements as needed. Clinicians must also attempt to gain the child's attention before providing the recast. Treatment sessions are approximately 30 minutes in duration.

Hard first

Children are treated for a grammatical form that is used accurately less than 30% of the time during 3 pre-treatment probe sessions. This form is treated until children generalize it's use an average of 90% or more across 3 probe sessions. Their treatment target is then switched to a grammatical form that is used less than 30% correct across 3 pre-treatment probe sessions.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Conversational recasting

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The treatment procedure uses 24 treatment doses embedded into child-friendly activities (crafts, book reading, play). Each each consists of a clinician eliciting use of a targeted grammatical form, a child's attempt (correct or incorrect) to use that form, and an immediate clinician repetition of the child's attempt (a recast), correcting any ungrammatical elements as needed. Clinicians must also attempt to gain the child's attention before providing the recast. Treatment sessions are approximately 30 minutes in duration.

Interventions

Conversational recasting

The treatment procedure uses 24 treatment doses embedded into child-friendly activities (crafts, book reading, play). Each each consists of a clinician eliciting use of a targeted grammatical form, a child's attempt (correct or incorrect) to use that form, and an immediate clinician repetition of the child's attempt (a recast), correcting any ungrammatical elements as needed. Clinicians must also attempt to gain the child's attention before providing the recast. Treatment sessions are approximately 30 minutes in duration.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Native English speaking
• Passed a pure-tone hearing screening
• 4-6 years of age
• SPELT-P2 (language) test score of < 87
• K-ABC-II Nonverbal Scale (cognition) test score of >75
• Sufficient morpheme errors to serve as treatment and control targets
• Articulations skills sufficient to judge use of language targets
• Able to attend treatment daily

Exclusion Criteria

• Parent report of other handicapping conditions
• Clinical signs of other disorders
• Enrolled in outside treatment

• Minimum Eligible Age: 4 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 6 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Arizona

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Locations

University of Arizona

Tucson, Arizona, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Elena Plante, PhD

Role: CONTACT

eplante@arizona.edu

520-621-5080

Rebecca Vance, MS

Role: CONTACT

rbvance@arizona.edu

520-626-9332

Facility Contacts

Elena Plante, PhD

Role: primary

eplante@arizona.edu

520-621-5080

Rebecca Vance, PhD

Role: backup

520-626-9332

Other Identifiers

DLD-Tx1

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id