Training Caregivers to Teach Vocabulary to Children With Language Impairment (DLD)

Caregiver Spanish Intervention Training for Children With Developmental Language Disorder

The purpose of this study is to determine whether Spanish-speaking caregivers can learn to teach science vocabulary to their children with the use and educational app and a short training video with target words. The children will take language, speech, and hearing tests, as well as science and vocabulary pretests with a speech-language pathologist. You will be asked to answer some questions about your language use in the house and other places. If you and your child qualify for the study, the researcher will randomly place you a group to 1) use the app, or 2) use books. Since you are chosen at random, there is no way of knowing which group you and your child will be in before you start. Participants will take part in an 11-week study (3 weeks of testing at the beginning, middle, and end of study, and 8 weeks of intervention). The testing will be conducted in a place that is comfortable for your child (home, school, university clinic). The intervention can be done at home (researchers will not be present for this part of the study, but we will be available to support you or answer questions). We want you to play (group 1) or read (group 2) with your child two times a week (~30 minutes) and send the audio recording of your interaction to our researchers.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Developmental Language Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Robust vocabulary intervention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 64
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Lindsey A Hiebert, Ph.D.; Phone Number: 928-523-2109; Email: Lindsey.Hiebert@nau.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Arizona
    • Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, 86011
      • Recruiting
      • NAU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic
      • Contact: Lindsey A Hiebert, Ph.D.; Phone Number: 928-523-2109; Email: Lindsey.Hiebert@nau.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Children:

• age (4-6) and not have completed kindergarten prior to pretesting
• pass a hearing screening to rule out hearing loss as a cause for language impairment
• speak Spanish at least 50% of their day reported in BIOS
• have a confirmed diagnosis of DLD via the BESA
• not have a diagnosis of intellectual disability via Matrices subtest or social communication disorder via Social Communication Questionnaire
• be able to speak with at least 3-word utterances

Caregivers:

• have access to a smart phone
• spend time with the child participant daily
• speak fluent Spanish

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Caregiver delivered vocabulary intervention; Caregivers will be trained to teach target vocabulary to their child during science activities	Behavioral: Robust vocabulary intervention; Caregivers will be trained to teach target vocabulary to their children
No Intervention: Caregiver-child book sharing; Caregivers will read books on target science concepts twice a week with their child

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Caregiver fidelity	Caregivers will use target vocabulary words a specified number of times during science activity with their child, as measured by review of audio recorded sessions.	11 weeks
Improved Tier-2 vocabulary for children	Children will be tested at baseline, mid intervention, and post intervention to determine if target vocabulary words were learned during caregiver provided intervention.	11 weeks
Modify intervention and training	Barriers and facilitators of teaching caregivers robust vocabulary intervention will be recorded and coded from caregiver focus group responses.	11 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Northern Arizona University
• Collaborators: National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 23, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 27, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 6, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): April 9, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 9, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 6, 2026
• Last Verified: April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: implementation science; bilingual; vocabulary; caregiver intervention
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Communication Disorders; Language Disorders; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Signs and Symptoms; Language Development Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2161898; U54MD012388 (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