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Effects of a cycled morphological intervention on selected suppletive BE forms
Ann A Tyler1, Kerry E Lewis, Allison Haskill
1University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA. anntyler@med.unr.edu
Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics
|May 10, 2003
Summary
This study shows a cycled intervention improved preschool children's use of "is." Generalization to other forms of "be" (auxiliary "is" and "am") was observed, particularly for "am" after 24 weeks.
Area of Science:
- Child language acquisition
- Morphological intervention
- Linguistic development
Background:
- The acquisition of suppletive forms of the verb 'to be' is complex for young children.
- Understanding intervention effects on copula 'is' and auxiliary forms is crucial for language development research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the efficacy of a cycled morphological intervention targeting copula 'is'.
- To investigate the intervention's effectiveness in promoting changes in untreated auxiliary 'is' and 'am'.
- To examine potential generalization of treatment effects to other verb forms.
Main Methods:
- A cycled, naturalistic intervention was administered over 24 weeks to 22 preschool children.
- Intervention focused on producing copula 'is' as the primary target.
- Language samples were collected at 12 and 24 weeks to measure production accuracy.
Main Results:
- The intervention group showed significant improvement in copula 'is' compared to the control group at 12 weeks.
- Untreated auxiliary 'is' also showed gains at 12 weeks.
- At 24 weeks, untreated 'am' demonstrated greater gains than copula 'is', suggesting broader generalization.
Conclusions:
- Cycled morphological intervention is effective for targeting copula 'is' in preschool children.
- Generalization of treatment effects to untreated auxiliary forms, specifically 'am', is possible.
- Further research should explore the extent and mechanisms of generalization for suppletive verb forms.