My Sentence Builder for Language Disorder

Recruiting at 6 trial locations

Overseen By Jennifer J Vannest, PhD

Age: < 18

Sex: Any

Trial Phase: Academic

Sponsor: University of Cincinnati

Disqualifiers: Speech-language intervention, MRI unsafe, special education, others

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

Compensation: Varies

Number of Visits: 27

Duration: 14 weeks

184 Participants Needed

Trial Summary

What is the purpose of this trial?

Children with developmental language disorders (DLD, aka specific language impairment), a prevalent pediatric disorder, experience hallmark grammar deficits with life-long impacts on educational and occupational outcomes. While effective and early interventions can mitigate the impact of DLD, not enough is known about the neural basis of DLD in young children, yet is needed to inform the design of more individualized interventions. This project uses neuroimaging, along with behavioral methods, with the goal of better understanding the memory-language mechanisms that underlie grammar learning and impairment, while also considering their association to treatment-related changes in preschoolers with DLD.

Will I have to stop taking my current medications?

The trial information does not specify whether participants need to stop taking their current medications.

What data supports the effectiveness of the treatment My Sentence Builder for language disorder?

Research on My Sentence Builder shows it helps children with specific language impairment improve their grammar skills. Similar treatments, like the Computerized Visual Communication System, have also shown long-term benefits in improving sentence production in people with language difficulties. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

How does the treatment My Sentence Builder differ from other treatments for language disorder?

My Sentence Builder is unique because it is a computer-assisted program specifically designed to help children with language disorders improve their expressive grammar, which is often linked to difficulties in verbal working memory. Unlike other treatments, it directly targets these grammar deficits, making it a novel approach for addressing specific language impairments. ^{1 6 7 8 9}

Research Team

Karla N Washington, PhD

Principal Investigator

University of Cincinnati

Eligibility Criteria

This trial is for preschoolers aged 4 to almost 6 with developmental language disorders affecting their grammar. They must speak only English, have normal hearing and vision (with correction), average nonverbal IQ, and no other interventions or special education for communication issues. Kids who can't safely undergo an MRI are excluded.

Inclusion Criteria

People who have normal language and social skills.

I am between 4 and 6 years old.

You have normal ability to move your mouth and tongue for eating and speaking.

Exclusion Criteria

Special education placement of child based on ability or behavior

I am currently getting help for my communication skills.

You cannot undergo an MRI scan safely.

Timeline

Screening

Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial

2-3 weeks

Treatment

Participants receive computer-assisted intervention targeting expressive grammar for preschoolers with DLD

14 weeks

Regular sessions as part of the intervention

Follow-up

Participants are monitored for safety and effectiveness after treatment

13-14 weeks

Assessments at 27 to 28 weeks post-treatment

Treatment Details

Interventions

• My Sentence Builder

Trial Overview 'My Sentence Builder' is being tested in this study to see if it helps improve grammar in children with developmental language disorders. The research includes brain scans (neuroimaging) and behavior tests to understand how the treatment might cause changes in the brain related to language learning.

Participant Groups

Group I: Treatment Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

computer assisted intervention targeting expressive grammar for preschoolers with DLD

Group II: No treatment Active Control 1 Intervention

business as usual classroom (educational) services

Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?

University of Cincinnati

Lead Sponsor

Trials

442

Recruited

639,000+

University of Toronto

Collaborator

Trials

739

Recruited

1,125,000+

Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati

Collaborator

Trials

844

Recruited

6,566,000+

Findings from Research

A computer-assisted treatment program (C-AT) called My Sentence Builder was effective in improving expressive-grammar skills in preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI), showing significant improvements compared to a control group that received no treatment.

Both the C-AT and traditional non-computer-assisted treatment (nC-AT) led to similar gains in expressive-grammar skills, indicating that while C-AT is a viable treatment option, it does not outperform conventional methods in this context.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Exploring the outcomes of a novel computer-assisted treatment program targeting expressive-grammar deficits in preschoolers with SLI. Washington, KN., Warr-Leeper, G., Thomas-Stonell, N.[2011]

A 65-year-old man with severe nonfluent aphasia showed significant improvement in producing tense-marked sentences after training with the Computerized Visual Communication System (C-VIC), and he maintained these gains for five months post-treatment.

After a second training session, the patient was able to maintain some improvements for up to a year, suggesting that ongoing practice in sentence-level therapy contributed to the retention of skills.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Maintenance of oral production in agrammatic aphasia: verb tense morphology training. Boser, KI., Weinrich, M., McCall, D.[2019]

A controlled study involving 11 language-disordered children demonstrated that a structured intervention strategy significantly improved their syntax skills, moving them from single words to more complex sentence structures.

The experimental group showed measurable gains in performance compared to a control group, with statistical significance (t = 2.31, p < 0.05), indicating the effectiveness of the therapy program.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A syntax program designed to present base linguistic structures to language-disordered children. Zwitman, DH., Sonderman, JC.[2019]

Scholars with oral and written language disorder produced significantly more words and verbs in their oral narratives compared to their written narratives, indicating a difference in linguistic productivity between the two modalities.

The research group showed less frequent use of time markers and fewer reported episodes in their written narratives, suggesting challenges in narrative structure and temporal organization in written language compared to oral language.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

[Linguistic and narrative variables in oral and written language disorder]. Miilher, LP., de Avila, CR.[2019]

The use of the SentenceShaper communication system has shown promise in helping individuals with aphasia produce more structured speech by reducing the impact of processing limitations, allowing for better monitoring of their own speech.

The study aims to confirm previous findings that using SentenceShaper can lead to improvements in spontaneous speech production, while also investigating whether practice effects from repeated narrative elicitations could affect the perceived efficacy of the system.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Widening the temporal window: processing support in the treatment of aphasic language production. Linebarger, M., McCall, D., Virata, T., et al.[2022]

A linguistic-specific treatment approach for agrammatic aphasia has shown successful outcomes in improving sentence production deficits, with targeted training leading to better performance on both trained and similar untrained sentences.

Improvements were also observed in discourse tasks, indicating that this treatment not only helps with specific sentence structures but also enhances overall communication abilities.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Linguistic-Specific Sentence Production Treatment for Agrammatic Aphasia. Thompson, CK.[2019]

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) showed significantly poorer performance on a Danish sentence repetition task compared to typically developing (TD) peers, particularly in areas like verb inflection and word order, indicating specific morphosyntactic difficulties.

The sentence repetition task demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity (over 90%) for identifying DLD in children, suggesting it could be a valuable clinical marker for diagnosing language disorders in Danish-speaking populations.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Sentence Repetition: A Clinical Marker for Developmental Language Disorder in Danish. Vang Christensen, R.[2020]

The Dynamic Assessment of Sentence Structure (DASS) was developed and tested on 24 children aged 8-10 with language impairments, showing high reliability and validity in assessing their sentence formulation skills.

This assessment tool provides valuable insights into children's language strategies and learning transfer, which can help speech and language therapists tailor effective intervention programs for each child.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Dynamic Assessment of Sentence Structure (DASS): design and evaluation of a novel procedure for the assessment of syntax in children with language impairments. Hasson, N., Dodd, B., Botting, N.[2019]

The therapeutic program successfully replicated from a previous study led to improvements in both sentence comprehension and production for a patient with specific sentence processing deficits.

The results provided valuable insights into the nature of the patient's deficits and the underlying mechanisms of the therapy, suggesting its effectiveness in addressing similar language processing issues.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Sentence processing deficits: a replication of therapy. Nickels, L., Byng, S., Black, M.[2019]

References

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

Exploring the outcomes of a novel computer-assisted treatment program targeting expressive-grammar deficits in preschoolers with SLI. [2011]

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

Maintenance of oral production in agrammatic aphasia: verb tense morphology training. [2019]

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

A syntax program designed to present base linguistic structures to language-disordered children. [2019]

4. Brazil pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

[Linguistic and narrative variables in oral and written language disorder]. [2019]

5. Netherlands pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Widening the temporal window: processing support in the treatment of aphasic language production. [2022]

6. England pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Linguistic-Specific Sentence Production Treatment for Agrammatic Aphasia. [2019]

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

Sentence Repetition: A Clinical Marker for Developmental Language Disorder in Danish. [2020]

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

Dynamic Assessment of Sentence Structure (DASS): design and evaluation of a novel procedure for the assessment of syntax in children with language impairments. [2019]

9. England pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Sentence processing deficits: a replication of therapy. [2019]