Immediate and Maintained Effects of Explicit and Contextualized Narrative and Expository Language Intervention for...

Area of Science:

• Child Language Development
• Educational Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• Foundational oral language skills precede reading and support academic learning.
• Students with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) often have oral language weaknesses impacting classroom discourse.
• Early elementary instruction relies heavily on narrative and expository language, yet targeted interventions are uncommon.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the immediate and maintained effects of a structured, small-group oral language intervention.
• The intervention targeted both narrative and expository discourse genres.
• The study included early elementary students with and without DLD.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial with 80 kindergarten through second-grade students.
• Participants were identified with DLD or weak narrative language performance.
• Students were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group; outcomes assessed at pretest, posttest, and follow-up.

Main Results:

• Statistically significant improvements in narrative language were observed post-intervention and maintained at follow-up.
• Intervention effects were consistent across students with and without DLD, with large effects for students with DLD.
• No significant intervention effects were found for expository language outcomes.

Conclusions:

• Explicit, contextualized narrative and expository language instruction in small groups yields durable improvements in narrative skills.
• This intervention approach is effective for young children, including those with DLD.
• The findings support the use of targeted oral language interventions to enhance narrative abilities in early elementary education.