Clinical Research Directory
Browse clinical research sites, groups, and studies.
The Effect of Prior Learning on Treatment of Morpheme Errors
Sponsor: University of Arizona
Summary
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 only be treated for 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.
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
4 Years - 6 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
35
Start Date
2022-02-01
Completion Date
2025-04-30
Last Updated
2026-10-05
Healthy Volunteers
No
Conditions
Interventions
Conversational recasting
The treatment procedure uses 24 treatment doses embedded into child-friendly activities (crafts, book reading, play). Each each consists of a clinician eliciting use of a targeted grammatical form, a child's attempt (correct or incorrect) to use that form, and an immediate clinician repetition of the child's attempt (a recast), correcting any ungrammatical elements as needed. Clinicians must also attempt to gain the child's attention before providing the recast. Treatment sessions are approximately 30 minutes in duration.
Locations (1)
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona, United States