Supportive Learning for Developmental Language Disorder

Overseen By Lab Manager

Age: < 18

Sex: Any

Trial Phase: Academic

Sponsor: Father Flanagan's Boys' Home

Disqualifiers: Intellectual disability, Autism, Hearing loss, others

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

Compensation: Varies

Number of Visits: 2

120 Participants Needed

What You Need to Know Before You Apply

What is the purpose of this trial?

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine how memory and attention affect the ability of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) to learn and use new vocabulary.

Who Is on the Research Team?

Karla McGregor, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator

Boystown National Research Hospital

Are You a Good Fit for This Trial?

This trial is for children with developmental language disorders (DLD), including acquired language disorder and central auditory processing disorder. It aims to understand how their memory and attention influence learning new vocabulary.

Inclusion Criteria

Has DLD or typical language development

Exclusion Criteria

I have a condition like autism or hearing loss that could explain my language issues.

I was not exposed to English from birth.

Timeline for a Trial Participant

Screening

Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial

2-4 weeks

Experimental Tasks

Participants engage in various tasks to assess memory and attention, including syllable repetition and word comprehension under different conditions.

2 days

2 visits (in-person)

Follow-up

Participants are monitored for any additional insights or data collection post-experiment.

2 weeks

What Are the Treatments Tested in This Trial?

Interventions

• Cascades
• Supportive learning

Trial Overview The study tests the effectiveness of 'Cascades' and 'Supportive learning' interventions in improving verbal memory, which may help children with DLD enhance their vocabulary acquisition skills.

How Is the Trial Designed?

Group I: Prosody Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

In Aim 1a, the syllables to be repeated are presented with English-like prosody or list-like prosody.

Group II: Meaning Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

In Aim 1a, the syllables to be repeated will have meaning (e.g., neck) or no meaning (e.g., ba).

Group III: Grammar Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

In Aim 1b, the syllables to be repeated are English adjectives and nouns. They will be presented to obey English grammar (e.g., happy pencil) or not (e.g., pencil happy).

Group IV: Encoding Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

In Aim 4, new words will be learned from instruction that involves active practice (high encoding condition) or passive study (low encoding condition).

Group V: Attention Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

In Aim 2, the syllables to be repeated will be presented in the 'baseline' condition or an 'attention-grabbing' condition. The attention grabbers are a reduction in the audio signal of 10dB (so that the child must listen carefully) and a visual cue (a cartoon character with large ears to cue listening carefully).

Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?

Father Flanagan's Boys' Home

Lead Sponsor

Trials

14

Recruited

1,600+

University of Iowa

Collaborator

Trials

486

Recruited

934,000+

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

Collaborator

Trials

377

Recruited

190,000+

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Collaborator

Trials

2,896

Recruited

8,053,000+