The Effect of Prior Learning on Treatment of Morpheme Errors

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The number of unprompted use of the trained grammatical form that occurs during treatment sessions. Change is measured relative to baseline.

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

Individual participant data, including clinical test scores and outcome measures, are shared in publications and presentations. Other study data is provided by request from the study PI.

Data is available for sharing after initial publication and for a minimum of 5 years after publication.