Efficacy of Complexity-Based Target Selection for Treating Morphosyntactic Deficits in Children With Developmental...

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• Morphosyntactic deficits are common in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and Down syndrome (DS).
• The complexity approach in language intervention posits that targeting complex linguistic structures can lead to improvements in both treated and untreated, simpler structures.
• Selecting appropriate targets for morphosyntactic intervention is crucial for effective treatment planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of the complexity approach for treating morphosyntactic deficits in children with DLD and DS.
• To investigate the impact of targeting a complex BE verb question structure on treated and untreated BE verb structures.
• To explore whether the etiology (DLD vs. DS) influences treatment response.

Main Methods:

• A single-case multiple-baseline design across participants was employed.
• Three children with DLD and three children with DS received treatment targeting a complex BE verb question structure.
• Production accuracy for treated and untreated BE verb structures was assessed during baseline, treatment, and posttreatment phases.

Main Results:

• Treatment of the complex BE verb question structure led to improvements in the targeted structure for three participants (two with DLD, one with DS).
• Generalization of treatment effects to untreated, related BE verb structures was observed in all six participants.
• Participants with both DLD and DS benefited from the complexity-based intervention.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the use of the complexity approach for selecting morphosyntactic treatment targets in children with DLD and DS.
• Further research is necessary to identify factors influencing individual treatment outcomes.
• This approach offers a promising strategy for addressing morphosyntactic challenges in these populations.