Combining implicit and explicit intervention approaches to target grammar in young children with Developmental Language Disorder

Abstract

Children with developmental language disorder are likely to experience difficulties with morphosyntax, especially regular past tense marking. Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of intervention to improve morphosyntax in young school-aged children with DLD. This study investigated the efficacy of combined explicit and implicit intervention techniques delivered by a speech pathologist to improve receptive and expressive grammar, including the use of past tense morphosyntax, using a multiple baseline single case experimental design. Participants were aged six to seven years and received two 1:1 45 minute sessions per week for five weeks (total 7.5 hours) using Shape Coding intervention techniques combined with implicit approaches. Two of the three participants made statistically significant gains on standardised tests of general receptive and expressive grammar. Two of the three children made statistically significant improvement on measures of expressive morphosyntax, with one participant continuing to improve five weeks post treatment. Findings suggest that this approach was efficacious. These findings warrant further investigation using larger group comparison research studies.

The Efficacy of an Explicit Intervention Approach to Improve Past Tense Marking for Early School-Age Children With Developmental Language Disorder

“…There were no differences between groups on production or grammaticality judgment of 3S marking (the extension measure), suggesting no effect of the intervention on these measures. Similar to findings from Calder et al (2018Calder et al ( , 2020, the limited improvement on 3S, suggests that even linguistically similar structures are unlikely to improve without direct intervention. This finding is consistent with existing studies (e.g., Eidsvåg et al, 2019) suggesting grammar intervention must be targeted to specific targets to yield improvement in children with DLD.…”

“…Inconsistent with previous findings (Calder et al, 2018(Calder et al, , 2020, mean scores on standardized assessments did not significantly improve following intervention. The current study differs in a critical aspect: the addition of a waiting control group.…”

“…In a pilot efficacy study, Calder et al (2018) combined the SHAPE CODING TM system with a systematic cueing hierarchy (Smith-Lock et al, 2015) for three children aged seven years with DLD. Using a single case experimental design (SCED) the children were seen one-on-one, twice a week for five weeks in 45 minute sessions, resulting in seven and a half hours of intervention.…”

Pedagogical support for families raising children with early developmental disabilities

“…The pedagogical support specialist for young children and their families should have the following skills (BRUINSMA, WIJNEN, GERRITS, 2020;CALDER, CLAESSEN, LEITÃO, 2018):…”

Grammar intervention in children with specific language impairment: an integrative literature review

“…It is important to note that 3 investigations (in which the therapies were not focused on grammatical comprehension) showed that children also benefited at a comprehensive level. Thus, the work of Calder et al 42 , which uses combined approaches, Zwitserlood et al 40 , which uses the metalinguistic approach and Camarata et al 26 that uses implicit approaches to work expressive grammar, indicated that children were favored both expressively and comprehensively. These results suggest that the approach to grammatical comprehension can be performed indirectly, in particular the explicit or metalinguistic approach seems to be useful for receptive grammatical difficulties.…”