The Effects of PROsyntax in Children with Developmental Language Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A...

Area of Science:

• Child language acquisition
• Clinical linguistics
• Developmental psychology

Background:

• Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) often exhibit syntactic impairments.
• Early, evidence-based intervention is crucial to mitigate the impact of these difficulties.
• PROsyntax is one of two intervention programs available in Portugal, but its effectiveness was not yet established.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the PROsyntax intervention program.
• To assess PROsyntax's impact on expressive and receptive syntax in preschool children with DLD or ASD.

Main Methods:

• A nonrandomized controlled trial involving 31 preschool children (3-6 years) with syntactic impairments.
• Participants were allocated to an experimental group (EG, n=14) receiving PROsyntax or a control group (CG, n=17).
• Standardized assessments (SIN:TACS, ALO Subtest 3) were used for pre- and postintervention evaluations.

Main Results:

• The EG showed statistically significant improvements in both expressive and receptive syntax compared to the CG.
• Large effect sizes were observed for both expressive and receptive syntax measures.
• High satisfaction ratings were reported by families and educators, and the CG also showed gains after receiving the intervention.

Conclusions:

• PROsyntax demonstrates preliminary effectiveness in enhancing syntactic skills in preschool children with ASD or DLD.
• Findings support the use of explicit interventions for preschool-age children with syntactic impairments.
• Further research is needed due to the nonrandomized design, small sample size, and lack of long-term follow-up.