Oral language comprehension interventions in 1–8-year-old children with language disorders or difficulties: A systematic scoping review

Abstract

Background and aims The most severe problems in language manifest as difficulties in comprehending oral language. These difficulties are persistent and expose individuals to several risk factors. There is a lack of intervention research in the area of oral language comprehension, and no reviews have focused solely on oral language comprehension interventions in young children. The aim of this review was to identify interventions targeting oral language comprehension in children 8 years or younger with language disorders or difficulties. The review also examined the possible intervention foci, efficacy, and level of evidence of these interventions. Methods A systematic scoping review of eight databases was carried out. Twenty of 2399 articles met the inclusion criteria and a further six articles were identified through reference lists of sourced articles. These 26 articles described 25 studies. Altogether 2460 children aged 1–8 years participated in the 25 studies. The data from these studies were extracted and analysed, and the intervention foci, efficacy, and level of evidence were evaluated. Main contribution: The reviewed interventions focused on three aspects: modifying the communicative environment of the child; targeting aspects of the child’s language; or targeting the child’s language processing. Of the included studies, 80% indicated positive effects on participants’ oral language comprehension. The level of evidence of the included studies varied. With few exceptions, researchers and practitioners can have moderate confidence in the results of the included studies indicating that it is possible to ameliorate difficulties in oral language comprehension. Conclusions This review summarises the existing evidence on oral language comprehension interventions in young children with language disorders or difficulties. The evidence base is still limited, and more research is urgently needed. The results suggest that though not all interventions seem to provide desired outcomes, there are several interventions indicating efficacy to target problems in oral language comprehension in 1–8-year-old children with language disorders or difficulties. A careful choice of therapy technique and collaboration with people in the child’s environment is required to maximize outcomes. Implications: The results suggest that young children’s oral language comprehension skills can be improved by guiding parents and clinicians in their communication strategies, and by clinician-implemented interventions targeting aspects of the child’s language. The research on interventions targeting children’s language processing is limited, and the results mixed. The present study provides information on different oral language comprehension interventions and their outcomes. The findings are readily applicable for clinical use.

Intervention for oral language comprehension skills in preschoolers with developmental language disorder

“…There is evidence that pupils who enter school with DLD retain a good part of their language problems throughout their primary education (6–12 years old), leading us to conclude that children with difficulties in the receptive component of language need intervention as early as possible (Tarvainen et al., 2020). However, there has been little research into the therapeutic interest of addressing oral language comprehension problems, especially at the ages when schooling begins (Tarvainen et al., 2020). As Tarvainen et al.…”

“…This would explain the frequent appearance of oral language comprehension problems, which obviously constitute a clear risk factor for future difficulties in reading, especially when it comes to extracting the meaning of written texts (Desmarais et al., 2013). Consequently, it is essential to design intervention programmes that enrich all the skills involved in the early stimulation of language comprehension (Tarvainen et al., 2020). The need is more than justified, since there is little evidence of the effectiveness of therapy in improving receptive language skills (Law et al., 2004).…”

Musical interaction with children and young people with severe or profound intellectual and multiple disabilities: a scoping review

“…The quality appraisal inevitably involves a subjective component. Following Tarvainen et al (2020), an interrater reliability check was conducted to examine the reliability of the quality appraisal in a randomly chosen (5/25) 20% of the studies, as performed by two of the authors. The reliability check yielded a match of 86% point-by-point agreement.…”

Oral language comprehension interventions in school-age children and adolescents with developmental language disorder: A systematic scoping review

“…The research question was created using the PICO framework (Schardt et al, 2007) The present review is the second part of a larger search. The previous review article (Tarvainen et al, 2020) included children aged eight years and younger. The present review focused on children and adolescents aged 9 to 17 years.…”