Maximizing Treatment Efficiency in Developmental Language Disorder: Positive Effects in Half the Time

Area of Science:

• Speech-language pathology
• Developmental psychology
• Pediatric language disorders

Background:

• Behavioral treatments for language disorders are often effective.
• Optimizing treatment delivery (dose density) is crucial when efficacy is established.
• Enhanced Conversational Recast (ECR) is a validated method for addressing morphological errors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if increasing dose density in ECR treatment enhances effectiveness or efficiency.
• To determine if compressing treatment doses impacts outcomes for morphological errors.

Main Methods:

• Twenty children with morphological errors received ECR treatment.
• Two groups received 24 doses: one in 30 minutes, the other in 15 minutes.
• Morpheme generalization and spontaneous use were tracked during and after treatment.

Main Results:

• The ECR treatment was effective overall for all participants.
• No significant differences in outcome measures were found between the high-density and standard-density groups.
• Follow-up performance strongly correlated with end-of-treatment performance.

Conclusions:

• Compressing ECR treatment doses into a shorter timeframe does not compromise treatment effectiveness.
• High-density dose delivery is a more efficient method, potentially freeing up session time or increasing classroom instructional time.
• Treatment gains are maintained at follow-up, irrespective of dose density.