The Effect of Prior Learning on Treatment of Morpheme Errors

Developmental Language Disorder Clinical Trial

Official title:

The Effect of Prior Learning on Treatment of Morpheme Errors

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05953077
• Other study ID #: DLD-Tx1
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: June 7, 2023
• Est. completion date: January 30, 2025

Study information

• Verified date: January 2024
• Source: University of Arizona
• Contact: Elena Plante, PhD
• Phone: 520-621-5080
• Email: eplante[@]arizona.edu
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 32
• Est. completion date: January 30, 2025
• Est. primary completion date: August 30, 2024
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 4 Years to 6 Years

Eligibility

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

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Developmental Language Disorder
• Language Development Disorders
• Language Disorders

Intervention

Behavioral:
• 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.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Arizona	Tucson	Arizona

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Arizona

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	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
Primary	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
Primary	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.
Primary	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	Change in spontaneous use	The number of unprompted use of the trained grammatical form that occurs during treatment sessions. Change is measured relative to baseline.	5 sessions a week over 6 weeks.