Phonological Pattern Learning for Language Disorder in Toddlers

Recruiting at 1 trial location

Overseen By LouAnn Gerken, PhD

Age: < 18

Sex: Any

Trial Phase: Academic

Sponsor: University of Arizona

Disqualifiers: Hearing, Intellectual, Autism, Motor, others

No Placebo Group All trial participants will receive the active study treatment (no placebo)

Compensation: Varies

Number of Visits: Unknown

150 Participants Needed

Trial Summary

What is the purpose of this trial?

This broad aim of this clinical study is to assess the hypothesis that morphological and phonological deficits are linked by a broader deficit in sequential pattern learning. This hypothesis applies to learning in general, but is especially critical as an avenue for developing earlier assessments and more powerful interventions for children with developmental language disorder (DLD; AKA specific language impairment). Other populations, such as at-risk toddlers, may also benefit from this new approach.

Do I need to stop my current medications for this trial?

The trial information does not specify whether you need to stop taking your current medications.

What data supports the effectiveness of the treatment for phonological pattern learning in toddlers with language disorders?

Research shows that pattern-based approaches to phonological therapy, which focus on identifying and treating phonological processes, have been effective in improving speech patterns in children. Studies have demonstrated that treating phonological processes can lead to significant improvements in children's phonological systems, with correct production of sounds generalizing to those not directly trained. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

Is the phonological pattern learning treatment safe for toddlers with language disorders?

The research does not provide specific safety data for the phonological pattern learning treatment in toddlers, but it does not report any adverse effects in related studies on language learning and development. ^{6 7 8 9 10}

How is the Phonological Pattern Learning treatment different from other treatments for language disorders in toddlers?

This treatment is unique because it focuses on helping toddlers with language disorders learn sound patterns by improving their ability to detect and use sequential dependencies, which are important for understanding words and grammar. Unlike other treatments, it specifically targets the underlying learning mechanisms that are impaired in children with developmental language disorder. ^{1 7 10 11 12}

Research Team

LouAnn Gerken, PhD

Principal Investigator

University of Arizona

Eligibility Criteria

This trial is for toddlers with no medical or developmental concerns, normal speech, social, and motor development, dominant exposure to English from infancy, normal hearing, and expressive vocabulary above the 10th percentile. Toddlers with hearing or intellectual impairments, autism, reported developmental disorders or significant motor impairment cannot participate.

Inclusion Criteria

My toddler has no medical or developmental issues, according to our doctor.

My child has been mainly exposed to English since birth, according to my observations.

Toddlers should have normal language, speech, social, and motor development based on their parents' reports.

Exclusion Criteria

I do not have significant problems with movement.

I do not have a history of developmental, speech, language, or hearing disorders.

You will be excluded if you have trouble hearing.

Timeline

Screening

Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial

2-4 weeks

Training

Participants are exposed to phonological and morphological sequence learning tasks to assess sensitivity to pattern types

4-6 weeks

Generalization

Participants are tested on their ability to generalize learned patterns to new nonwords

3-5 minutes

Follow-up

Participants are monitored for retention of learned patterns and any developmental changes

4 weeks

Treatment Details

Interventions

• Sensitivity to phonological rules & referents FR: Toddlers
• Sensitivity to phonological rules & referents OR: Toddlers
• Sensitivity to phonological rules & referents: Toddlers

Trial Overview The study tests if there's a link between morphological and phonological deficits in language learning by observing toddlers' sensitivity to phonological rules. It aims to improve assessments and interventions for children with developmental language disorder (DLD) or specific language impairment (SLI).

Participant Groups

Group I: Sensitivity to phonological rules & referents OR: Toddlers Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

OR condition

Group II: Sensitivity to phonological rules & referents FR: Toddlers Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

Family Resemblance condition

Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?

University of Arizona

Lead Sponsor

Trials

545

Recruited

161,000+

The University of Texas at Dallas

Collaborator

Trials

71

Recruited

108,000+

Findings from Research

The article outlines a pattern-based approach to assess and treat phonological disorders in children, utilizing phonological processes to analyze and improve speech patterns.

A case study demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach, highlighting how targeted interventions can be structured using identified phonological processes to enhance speech development.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Pattern-based approaches to phonological therapy. Stoel-Gammon, C., Stone-Goldman, J., Glaspey, A.[2004]

Phonological complexity in language input can significantly influence language learning in children with functional phonological delays, suggesting that more complex sounds may enhance their learning process.

The review emphasizes the importance of selecting target sounds for treatment based on linguistic complexity, which can lead to better generalization of language skills in children.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Phonological complexity and language learnability. Gierut, JA.[2022]

The study involved three related experiments with 6 children who had phonological disorders, focusing on how their productive phonological knowledge affects their ability to generalize learning.

Results showed that children's understanding of their own sound system significantly influenced their generalization learning, with better outcomes when treatment was tailored to their specific level of phonological knowledge.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A functional analysis of phonological knowledge and generalization learning in misarticulating children. Gierut, JA., Elbert, M., Dinnsen, DA.[2019]

In a study involving 4 children aged 3 to 5 years, two different phonological treatment procedures led to significant improvements in their speech, with marked changes observed in their phonological systems within just 2.5 months.

Both treatment methods were effective in eliminating up to three phonological processes, supporting the idea that addressing phonological processes can enhance articulation remediation and that phonological acquisition occurs gradually.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Clinical application of two phonologically based treatment procedures. Tyler, AA., Edwards, ML., Saxman, JH.[2019]

In a study involving nine children aged 3 to 5 with phonological disorders, different learning patterns emerged despite identical training on misarticulated sounds, highlighting variability in how children process phonological knowledge.

The findings suggest that children's phonological knowledge may be represented in ways that differ from adult norms, which has important implications for clinical assessments and interventions in speech therapy.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Generalization patterns associated with training least phonological knowledge. Williams, AL.[2019]

Adults with developmental language disorder (DLD) can learn certain types of artificial grammar, specifically the Family Resemblance grammar, as effectively as adults with typical development, indicating that their learning abilities are not universally impaired.

The study supports the sequential pattern learning deficit hypothesis, suggesting that difficulties in grammar learning for individuals with DLD are primarily linked to challenges in computing sequential dependencies rather than a general impairment in implicit learning.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Not All Procedural Learning Tasks Are Difficult for Adults With Developmental Language Disorder. Gerken, L., Plante, E., Goffman, L.[2021]

Infants can learn sound patterns that involve local sequential dependencies, which are challenging for adults, highlighting a unique aspect of early language acquisition.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) struggle with learning sequential dependencies, which affects their ability to acquire words and grammar, but they can still learn patterns based on stored forms, indicating a specific area of impairment in language learning.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A developmental account of the role of sequential dependencies in typical and atypical language learners. Goffman, L., Gerken, L.[2023]

Toddlers' ability to learn new words is influenced by their exposure to novel phonological patterns, as shown in a study with 41 two-year-olds who were familiarized with new words before learning label-object pairs.

Children with smaller vocabularies were able to learn all new word pairings, while those with larger vocabularies only learned words that matched the new phonological patterns, indicating that phonological knowledge plays a significant role in word learning.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Phonological Learning Influences Label-Object Mapping in Toddlers. Breen, E., Pomper, R., Saffran, J.[2020]

The study found that infants who demonstrated a mature auditory response to pitch changes were also able to recognize linguistic rules, indicating a strong link between basic auditory processing and language learning.

In adults, those who successfully learned linguistic rules showed enhanced auditory processing for pitch, suggesting that effective auditory functions are crucial for both infants and adults in acquiring language skills.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Auditory perception at the root of language learning. Mueller, JL., Friederici, AD., Männel, C.[2021]

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrated significant deficits in producing rhythmic sequences, showing less accuracy and more variability compared to typically developing peers, based on a study involving 57 children aged 4 to 5.

The findings suggest that the difficulties in rhythmic grouping in children with DLD are linked to cognitive impairments in organizing rhythmic events rather than motor skills, highlighting the importance of rhythmic organization in both language and music for diagnosis and intervention.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Children With Developmental Language Disorder Show Deficits in the Production of Musical Rhythmic Groupings. Kreidler, K., Vuolo, J., Goffman, L.[2023]

Nine-month-old infants can learn and recognize specific phonological patterns in their native language, demonstrating their ability to extract new sound rules from fluent speech.

The study found that while infants can rapidly learn these patterns, the ease of acquisition varies, indicating that some phonological regularities are more accessible for them to grasp than others.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Pattern induction by infant language learners. Saffran, JR., Thiessen, ED.[2019]

Infants at familial risk of dyslexia showed a deficit in implicit sequential learning, as they could not distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical strings in an artificial language, unlike typically developing infants.

This study suggests that difficulties in tracking non-adjacent dependencies in language may contribute to the development of dyslexia, highlighting the importance of implicit learning in language acquisition.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Non-adjacent dependency learning in infants at familial risk of dyslexia. Kerkhoff, A., De Bree, E., De Klerk, M., et al.[2019]

References

1. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Pattern-based approaches to phonological therapy. [2004]

2. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Phonological complexity and language learnability. [2022]

3. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A functional analysis of phonological knowledge and generalization learning in misarticulating children. [2019]

4. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Clinical application of two phonologically based treatment procedures. [2019]

5. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Generalization patterns associated with training least phonological knowledge. [2019]

6. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Not All Procedural Learning Tasks Are Difficult for Adults With Developmental Language Disorder. [2021]

7. England pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A developmental account of the role of sequential dependencies in typical and atypical language learners. [2023]

8. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Phonological Learning Influences Label-Object Mapping in Toddlers. [2020]

9. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Auditory perception at the root of language learning. [2021]

10. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Children With Developmental Language Disorder Show Deficits in the Production of Musical Rhythmic Groupings. [2023]

11. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Pattern induction by infant language learners. [2019]

12. England pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Non-adjacent dependency learning in infants at familial risk of dyslexia. [2019]