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.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Developmental Language Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Conversational recasting

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 32
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Elena Plante, PhD; Phone Number: 520-621-5080; Email: eplante@arizona.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Rebecca Vance, MS; Phone Number: 520-626-9332; Email: rbvance@arizona.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Arizona
    • Tucson, Arizona, United States, 85721
      • Recruiting
      • University of Arizona
      • Contact: Elena Plante, PhD; Phone Number: 520-621-5080; Email: eplante@arizona.edu
      • Contact: Rebecca Vance, PhD; Phone Number: 520-626-9332

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 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.	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.
Active Comparator: 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.	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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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 Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Arizona

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 1, 2022
• Primary Completion (Estimated): October 30, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): April 30, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 9, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 11, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): July 19, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 26, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 22, 2024
• Last Verified: January 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: treatment
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nervous System Diseases; Neurologic Manifestations; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Communication Disorders; Language Disorders; Language Development Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: DLD-Tx1

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: 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.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data is available for sharing after initial publication and for a minimum of 5 years after publication.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Secondary use must be consistent with the intent of the original consent document.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; ANALYTIC_CODE; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No