Complex syntax intervention for Developmental Language Impairment

Authors

  • Maria Athanatou Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Author
  • Elena Theodorou Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2020/11/0009/000424

Keywords:

DLD, elative clauses, metalinguistic approach, syntax

Abstract

Intervention for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) appears to be beneficial and contributes to sustainable linguistic gains. This paper reports on a pilot intervention study carried out in Cyprus that examined the efficacy of language treatment targeting complex syntactic structures. The language skills of a nine-year-old girl with DLD are evaluated at two distinct time points: immediately before and after the intervention. The child received therapy sessions based on the MetaTaal framework, specifically targeting relative clauses. Post-intervention measurements showed marginal improvement in both the production and comprehension of relative clauses. Notably, more pronounced improvements were observed in a Complex Sentence Repetition Task, suggesting that these complex grammatical structures have begun to emerge in her underlying linguistic system.

 

References

Bishop, D.V., Snowling, M.J., Thompson, P.A., Greenhalgh, T., & CATALISE Consortium. 2016. CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children. *PLOS ONE*, 11(7), e0158753.

Leonard, L.B. 2014. *Children with Specific Language Impairment* (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Theodorou, E., Kambanaros, M., & Grohmann, K.K. 2017. Sentence repetition as a tool for screening morphosyntactic abilities of bilectal children with SLI. *Frontiers in Psychology*, 8, 2104. [https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02104](https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02104)

Zwitserlood, R., Wijnen, F., van Weerdenburg, M., & Verhoeven, L. 2015. “MetaTaal”: Enhancing complex syntax in children with specific language impairment—a metalinguistic and multimodal approach. *International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders*, 50(3), 273–297. [https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12131]()

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Published

01-01-2020

How to Cite

Complex syntax intervention for Developmental Language Impairment. (2020). Linguistic Proceedings Series, 11(1), 37-40. https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2020/11/0009/000424

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