Treatment intensity for developmental language disorder: A systematic review.

Area of Science:

• Speech and Language Therapy
• Child Psychology
• Developmental Pediatrics

Background:

• Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) affects language acquisition in children.
• Treatment intensity is a crucial factor in therapeutic interventions for DLD.
• Recent research has focused on optimizing treatment parameters for DLD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and analyze studies on treatment intensity in children with DLD.
• To evaluate the methodological quality and scientific evidence of existing research.
• To identify specific language areas impacted by varying treatment intensities.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature review adhering to PRISMA guidelines.
• Selection of 9 relevant articles from 34 initial investigations.
• Analysis of studies focusing on treatment intensity and language outcomes.

Main Results:

• Studies primarily examined expressive morphology and vocabulary.
• High methodological quality and strong scientific evidence were noted across selected articles.
• Large effect sizes were generally observed for dependent variables.

Conclusions:

• Research on DLD treatment intensity remains limited.
• Varied stimuli positively impacted morphology but not vocabulary.
• Further investigation is required to understand transference and generalization of treated skills.