The nature and causes of children's grammatical difficulties: Evidence from an intervention to improve past tense marking in children with Down syndrome

Abstract

Children with language learning difficulties frequently display problems learning grammar. One such group is children with Down syndrome. This study evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention to teach the use of the regular simple past tense to children with Down syndrome. Trained teaching assistants delivered the intervention for 20 min per day for 10 weeks. We conducted a Randomised Controlled Trial, with a waiting list control design in which the Intervention group (N = 26) received the intervention immediately, while the delayed intervention group (N = 26) received the intervention later. Immediately following the intervention, the intervention group showed significantly larger gains in the use of regular simple past tense forms (d = 1.63 on a composite measure of simple past tense formation) as well as generalisation to verbs not explicitly taught. In addition, following the intervention children made overregularisation errors by incorrectly using regular simple past tense marking for irregular verbs; such errors support the claim that children had acquired generative knowledge underlying past tense marking. The delayed intervention control group showed identical benefits from the intervention when they received it, and the gains shown by the intervention group were maintained at follow up testing. This study shows that children with Down syndrome, who display severe language difficulties, can be taught to use simple past tense marking. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings for understanding the nature, causes and treatments of children's language difficulties are discussed.

Unlocking cognitive potential: a comprehensive review of neurocognitive interventions in Down Syndrome

“…Educational interventions, highlighted by language and speech therapy, technology-assisted learning, and working memory training, demonstrate promising outcomes in ameliorating cognitive impairments [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. The significance of behavioral interventions, including responsive teaching and motor skill-focused approaches, adds valuable insights to the cognitive enhancement landscape [25,26,27] [35][36][37].…”

“…However, immediately following delayed intervention, the control group managed to demonstrate significant improvement in their performance in the particular assessments as well. Furthermore, it was assessed at the same time, that the intervention group maintained their gains, thus displaying retention of the linguistic skills acquired [19].…”

A Randomized Trial of the Digital Down Syndrome LanguagePlus (DSL+) Vocabulary Intervention Program

“…No transfer effects have been found in previous group design language intervention studies involving children with Down syndrome (c.f. studies included in Smith et al, 2020), except for two studies training grammar (Baxter et al, 2018; Sepúlveda et al, 2013). In the present study, one singular/plural task and one present/past tense task were included in the training each day; however, these grammatical components were not the primary target of training but rather provided context to support the overall understanding of the specific target words.…”

Parent-Implemented Oral Vocabulary Intervention for Children With Down Syndrome

“…There was large variability in intervention characteristics (e.g., language components targeted, dosage of intervention), and researchers in only three of the eight studies focused on vocabulary skills. There was a large mean effect ( g = 1.01; confidence interval [CI] = [–0.54, 2.57]); however, the results of one study positively skewed the mean (Baxter et al, 2018). Thus, there is a need for more high-quality studies to inform effective vocabulary intervention for young children with DS.…”