Sentence Prediction in Developmental Language Disorder

March 31, 2026 updated by: Justin Kueser, Father Flanagan's Boys' Home
Millions of children - 7-12% of the school-age population - have developmental language disorder (DLD), a disorder that affects language learning, comprehension, and use. These children have difficulty with sentence production and comprehension at every stage of their development. These difficulties have major implications for the educational attainment of children with DLD compared to children with typical development (TD). Children with TD and adults make rapid predictions of upcoming words following verbs (e.g., predicting the patient in The dog eats the bone or the agent in The bone is eaten by the dog). Extensive work in children and adults indicates that prediction facilitates sentence comprehension by inducing a state of preparedness and contributes to language development by tuning the language system to the input. Children with DLD have a poorer ability to make sentence predictions, which may compound and result in sentence-comprehension deficits. Prior work on prediction deficits in DLD has focused on broad sentence characteristics like typicality or broad participant characteristics like vocabulary test scores. However, studies with typical individuals have identified more specific sentence- and participant-level contributors to sentence prediction. These factors have not been systematically explored in children with DLD. The investigators explore three separate hypotheses concerning factors that affect prediction in DLD. First, sentence- and participant-level properties affect prediction in children with DLD. Second, children with DLD lack robust representations of the underlying linguistic knowledge needed to predict, particularly abstract semantic features. Third, children with DLD have differences in event processing that relate to sentence prediction skill. The investigators investigate these hypotheses in 5-7-year-old school-age children with DLD across three Aims. Aim 1: Measure the effect of sentence- and participant-level properties on sentence prediction. The investigators will measure two participant-level cognitive factors (processing speed, verbal working memory) and their effect on prediction of agents and patients in sentences varying across two properties (syntactic complexity, semantic competition). Aim 2: Measure linguistic knowledge that underlies sentence prediction. The investigators will measure knowledge of agent-verb and verb-patient cooccurrences (e.g., dog-bite, eat-apple) and knowledge of verb-specific semantic features (e.g., throw-<round object>). Aim 3: Measure event-processing skills that underlie sentence prediction. The investigators will measure how children with DLD categorize and attend to agents/patients in visual scenes. Impact: This project has the promise to be highly impactful. First, it bridges disparate literatures on language processing in adults, children with TD, and children with DLD, providing clarity about predictive processing in DLD. Second, it may influence intervention approaches by identifying areas of strength and need in children with DLD. Third, it sets the stage for larger-scale longitudinal work examining effects of early prediction ability, language knowledge, and event processing on later sentence comprehension.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

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Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
80

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Nebraska
      • Omaha, Nebraska, United States, 68131
        • Recruiting
        • Boys Town National Research Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Justin Kueser, PhD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pass a hearing screening at 25dB at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz
  • Have normal or corrected-to-normal vision
  • Have no history of neurological disorders
  • For DLD group, Test of Narrative Language 2 (TNL-2) score less than 92
  • For TD group, TNL-2 score greater than 92, a cut-off that provides excellent sensitivity/specificity (.92/.92).

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Scores in the Autism range on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale 2 (CARS-2)
  • Scores below 75 on the Visual Spatial Index of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence 4 (WPPSI-IV)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Measure verb knowledge, sentence processing, and event processing
The investigators will measure participant-level cognitive factors and their effect on prediction of agents and patients in sentences varying across syntactic complexity and semantic competition. The investigators will measure knowledge of agent-verb and verb-patient cooccurrences (e.g., dog-bite, eat-apple) and knowledge of verb-specific semantic features (e.g., throw-<round object>). The investigators will measure how children with DLD categorize and attend to agents/patients in visual scenes.
Behavioral: Thematic role
The thematic role assessed for some trials will be the agent thematic role (i.e., the actor) and the thematic role assessed for the other trials will be the patient thematic role (i.e., the undergoer).
Behavioral: Sentence complexity
In half of the sentences, complexity will be simple (i.e., in simple active or passive sentences with no intervening linguistic material between the verb and the noun-to-be-predicted). In the other half of the sentences, complexity will be complex (i.e., additional linguistic material will intervene between the verb and the noun-to-be-predicted).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Behavioral response data
Time Frame: During sessions for verb knowledge tasks
For verb knowledge tasks, the investigators will measure children's button presses for accuracy.
During sessions for verb knowledge tasks
Eye tracking gaze data
Time Frame: During sessions for sentence processing and event processing tasks
During sentence processing and event processing, the investigators will measure children's looking to one or more images presented on-screen as a sentence is played (Aim 1) or as they point to images (Aim 3). The investigators will analyze how intervention conditions (thematic role and sentence complexity) influences children's looking patterns.
During sessions for sentence processing and event processing tasks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Behavioral response data
Time Frame: During sessions for verb knowledge tasks
For verb knowledge tasks, the investigators will measure children's button presses for latency.
During sessions for verb knowledge tasks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Father Flanagan's Boys' Home

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
February 16, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
July 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
July 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
February 24, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
March 31, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
April 6, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
April 6, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
March 31, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • R21DC022371-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • R21DC022371-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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