The Effect of Prior Learning on Treatment of Morpheme Errors

NCT05953077 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: DLD-Tx1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 32
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

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

Keywords

treatment

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Change in the use of treated grammatical forms in untreated contexts

  Clinicians elicit ten uses of the trained grammatical form using toys, activities, and vocabulary with-held from treatment sessions. Change is assessed throughout the treatment period.

  3 days per week over 6 weeks

• Change in the use of grammatical forms in untreated contexts

  Clinicians elicit ten uses of the untrained grammatical form using toys, activities, and vocabulary with-held from treatment sessions. Change is assessed throughout the treatment period.

  3 days per week over 6 weeks

• Retention of trained grammatical forms

  Clinicians elicit ten uses of the trained grammatical form using toys, activities, and vocabulary with-held from treatment sessions.

  One session, approximately 6 weeks after treatment concludes.

• Retention of untrained grammatical forms

  Clinicians elicit ten uses of the untrained grammatical form using toys, activities, and vocabulary with-held from treatment sessions.

  One session, approximately 6 weeks after treatment concludes.

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Change in spontaneous use

  5 sessions a week over 6 weeks.

Study Arms (2)

Easy first

EXPERIMENTAL

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.

Behavioral: Conversational recasting

Hard first

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

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.

Behavioral: Conversational recasting

Interventions

Conversational recasting 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.

Easy first; Hard first

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 4 Years - 6 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Native English speaking
• Passed a pure-tone hearing screening
• 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

You may not qualify if:

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

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Arizona: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Arizona

Tucson, Arizona, 85721, United States

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Language Development Disorders

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Language Disorders; Communication Disorders; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Central Study Contacts

Elena Plante, PhD

CONTACT

520-621-5080; eplante@arizona.edu

Rebecca Vance, MS

CONTACT

520-626-9332; rbvance@arizona.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: CARE PROVIDER
• Masking Details: Parents are masked concerning children's specific language goals and treatment conditions.
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: quasi-experimental design with two active treatment groups

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 9, 2023
• First Posted: July 19, 2023
• Study Start: February 1, 2022
• Primary Completion: October 30, 2024
• Study Completion: April 30, 2025
• Last Updated: August 26, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-01

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, CSR, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Data is available for sharing after initial publication and for a minimum of 5 years after publication.
• Access Criteria: Secondary use must be consistent with the intent of the original consent document.

Locations

US (1)