Balthazar Catherine H, Scott Cheryl M
Governors State University, University Park, IL.
Rush University, Chicago, IL.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2018 Mar 15;61(3):713-728. doi: 10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-17-0105.
This study investigated the effects of a complex sentence treatment at 2 dosage levels on language performance of 30 school-age children ages 10-14 years with specific language impairment.
Three types of complex sentences (adverbial, object complement, relative) were taught in sequence in once or twice weekly dosage conditions. Outcome measures included sentence probes administered at baseline, treatment, and posttreatment phases and comparisons of pre-post performance on oral and written language tests and tasks. Relationships between pretest variables and treatment outcomes were also explored.
Treatment was effective at improving performance on the sentence probes for the majority of participants; however, results differed by sentence type, with the largest effect sizes for adverbial and relative clauses. Significant and clinically meaningful pre-post treatment gains were found on a comprehensive oral language test, but not on reading and writing measures. There was no treatment advantage for the higher dosage group. Several significant correlations indicated a relationship between lower pretest scores and higher outcome measures.
Results suggest that a focused intervention can produce improvements in complex sentence productions of older school children with language impairment. Future research should explore ways to maximize gains and extend impact to natural language contexts.
本研究调查了两种剂量水平的复合句治疗对30名10 - 14岁患有特定语言障碍的学龄儿童语言表现的影响。
在每周一次或两次的剂量条件下，依次教授三种类型的复合句（状语从句、宾语补足语从句、关系从句）。结果测量包括在基线、治疗和治疗后阶段进行的句子测试，以及对口语和书面语言测试及任务前后表现的比较。还探讨了预测试变量与治疗结果之间的关系。
对于大多数参与者来说，治疗有效地提高了句子测试的表现；然而，结果因句子类型而异，状语从句和关系从句的效应量最大。在一项综合口语测试中发现了显著且具有临床意义的治疗前后的进步，但在阅读和写作测试中没有。高剂量组没有治疗优势。几个显著的相关性表明预测试分数较低与结果测量较高之间存在关系。
结果表明，针对性的干预可以改善大龄语言障碍学龄儿童的复合句生成能力。未来的研究应该探索如何最大化收益并将影响扩展到自然语言情境中。
