Conversational Recasting for Language Developmental Disorders

Overseen By Rebecca Vance, MS

Age: < 18

Sex: Any

Trial Phase: Academic

Sponsor: University of Arizona

Disqualifiers: Other handicapping conditions, other disorders, others

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

Compensation: Varies

Number of Visits: 6

Duration: 6 weeks

32 Participants Needed

Trial Summary

What is the purpose of this trial?

This is a small-scale treatment study designed to determine which teaching methods result in the best learning. Treatment focuses on helping children with a developmental language disorder learn parts of grammar. Preschool children will receive assessments to determine whether they have a developmental language disorder and what parts of grammar they have not mastered. Children will receive one-on-one behavioral treatment over a six week period. Half of the children will be first taught a grammatical form they sometimes use and then one they rarely use. The other half will start with a grammatical form they rarely use. The study seeks to determine whether starting with something children sometimes use correctly (an easier part of speech) will speed later learning of something that is harder for them. The children's ability to use the grammatical forms taught to them will be assessed throughout the treatment period and approximately six weeks after treatment ends.

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 Conversational Recasting Therapy for language developmental disorders?

Research shows that Conversational Recasting Therapy helps children with developmental language disorders improve their use of grammar. Studies found that children who repeated the correct forms during therapy made more progress, and those with certain test scores benefited the most from this treatment. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

How is Conversational Recasting Therapy different from other treatments for language developmental disorders?

Conversational Recasting Therapy is unique because it focuses on correcting children's language errors by repeating their incorrect sentences in a corrected form, which helps them learn the right way to use language. This treatment can be done individually or in small groups, and it emphasizes the importance of children hearing and practicing the correct forms to improve their language skills. ^{1 3 5 6 7}

Eligibility Criteria

This trial is for native English-speaking preschool children aged 4-6 with developmental language disorders. They must be able to attend daily treatment, have normal hearing, specific scores on language and cognition tests, clear speech articulation, and frequent grammar mistakes that need correction.

Inclusion Criteria

Articulations skills sufficient to judge use of language targets

I am a native English speaker.

Passed a pure-tone hearing screening

Exclusion Criteria

Enrolled in outside treatment

I show signs of having other health conditions.

Parent report of other handicapping conditions

Timeline

Screening

Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial

2-4 weeks

Treatment

Children receive one-on-one behavioral treatment focusing on grammatical forms over a six-week period

6 weeks

5 sessions per week

Follow-up

Participants are monitored for retention of trained and untrained grammatical forms approximately six weeks after treatment ends

6 weeks

1 session

Treatment Details

Interventions

• Conversational recasting

Trial Overview The study is testing conversational recasting as a teaching method to help children learn parts of grammar they struggle with. Over six weeks, the effectiveness of starting with easier or harder grammatical forms will be compared by assessing the children's use of these forms during and after treatment.

Participant Groups

Group I: Easy first Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

Children are treated for an emergent grammatical form that is used correctly at least 60% during three pre-treatment probe sessions. This form is treated until children generalize it's use an average of 90% or more across 3 probe sessions. Their treatment target is then switched to a grammatical form that is used less than 30% correct across 3 pre-treatment probe sessions.

Group II: Hard first Active Control 1 Intervention

Children are treated for a grammatical form that is used accurately less than 30% of the time during 3 pre-treatment probe sessions. This form is treated until children generalize it's use an average of 90% or more across 3 probe sessions. Their treatment target is then switched to a grammatical form that is used less than 30% correct across 3 pre-treatment probe sessions.

Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?

University of Arizona

Lead Sponsor

Trials

545

Recruited

161,000+

Findings from Research

Enhanced conversational recast treatment effectively improved the correct usage of targeted morphemes in preschoolers with developmental language disorder, regardless of whether they received treatment individually or in a small group setting (n = 20).

However, children in the group condition did not show significant improvement in using their partner's target morpheme, suggesting that simply hearing the target modeled is not enough for learning; active engagement with the recast is crucial for effective treatment.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Individual Versus Small Group Treatment of Morphological Errors for Children With Developmental Language Disorder. Eidsvåg, SS., Plante, E., Oglivie, T., et al.[2023]

Conversational recast treatment was found to be more effective than imitative treatment for helping both children with specific language impairment (SLI) and those with normal language skills acquire new language targets more quickly.

Children with SLI can learn grammatical structures as efficiently as their language-normal peers when given tailored language input that matches their developmental levels, suggesting that effective treatment strategies can bridge the gap in language acquisition.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Effects of imitative and conversational recasting treatment on the acquisition of grammar in children with specific language impairment and younger language-normal children. Nelson, KE., Camarata, SM., Welsh, J., et al.[2019]

In a study involving 47 preschool children with developmental language disorder, spontaneous repetition of clinician-modeled morphemes was found to significantly correlate with improved production of those morphemes during treatment.

Children who frequently and correctly repeated targeted morphemes not only showed better performance in using those forms but also had larger treatment effect sizes, suggesting that these repetitions may help them learn and master language structures more effectively.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Role of Spontaneous Repetitions During Treatment of Morphosyntactic Forms for Children With Developmental Language Disorder. Nicholas, K., Plante, E., Gómez, R., et al.[2023]

In a study of 105 preschool-age children with developmental language disorder, specific pre-intervention test scores (SPELT-P 2 and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) were found to predict how well children responded to Enhanced Conversational Recast treatment for grammatical deficits.

Children with a SPELT-P 2 score above 75 and a high Peabody score (> 100) showed the greatest improvement, while those with a SPELT-P 2 score below 75 had the least benefit, highlighting the importance of individual differences in treatment response.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Predictors of Treatment Response for Preschool Children With Developmental Language Disorder. Kapa, LL., Meyers-Denman, C., Plante, E., et al.[2023]

A systematic review and meta-analysis of 35 articles found strong support for the effectiveness of conversational recasts in improving grammatical development in children with language impairments, with average effect sizes of 0.96 for proximal measures and 0.76 for distal measures.

Despite variability in study quality, the evidence suggests that recasts can significantly enhance grammatical skills, indicating they are a beneficial component of language intervention strategies.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The efficacy of recasts in language intervention: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Cleave, PL., Becker, SD., Curran, MK., et al.[2022]

Noncorrective recasts during therapy sessions significantly predict both short-term and long-term improvements in children's use of the target grammatical form, indicating their effectiveness in language learning.

Recasts of subjectless sentences were linked to poorer outcomes, suggesting that the type of utterance matters in the recasting process and should be considered in clinical practices.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Within-treatment factors as predictors of outcomes following conversational recasting. Hassink, JM., Leonard, LB.[2021]

Integrating speech and grammatical interventions using recast treatment showed positive effects on speech-comprehensibility in 4 out of 6 children with Down syndrome, indicating a potential benefit of this combined approach.

Five out of 6 participants demonstrated growth in mean length of utterance (MLU) during generalization sessions, suggesting that this method may effectively enhance both speech clarity and grammatical skills in children with Down syndrome.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Simultaneous treatment of grammatical and speech-comprehensibility deficits in children with Down syndrome. Camarata, S., Yoder, P., Camarata, M.[2022]

References

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

Individual Versus Small Group Treatment of Morphological Errors for Children With Developmental Language Disorder. [2023]

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

Effects of imitative and conversational recasting treatment on the acquisition of grammar in children with specific language impairment and younger language-normal children. [2019]

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

The Role of Spontaneous Repetitions During Treatment of Morphosyntactic Forms for Children With Developmental Language Disorder. [2023]

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

Predictors of Treatment Response for Preschool Children With Developmental Language Disorder. [2023]

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

The efficacy of recasts in language intervention: a systematic review and meta-analysis. [2022]

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

Within-treatment factors as predictors of outcomes following conversational recasting. [2021]

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

Simultaneous treatment of grammatical and speech-comprehensibility deficits in children with Down syndrome. [2022]