Variables Determining Response to Intensive Intervention in Pre-school Language Impaired Children
Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This was a comparative longitudinal study of the files of 50 children who attended intensive \nlanguage therapy at The Centre for Language and Hearing Impaired Children over the past 8 \nyears. The research compared initial and final assessment results to determine what specific \nlanguage areas improve when children attend an intensive therapeutic pre-school \nenvironment. A paired comparison t-test with a 95% (alpha = 0.05) level of confidence was \nused to determine whether the difference between the initial and final assessments was \nstatistically significant. The study also examined and described associated child and family \nspecific variables such as: previous assessments and therapy, gender, pregnancy and birth, \nbirth order, feeding, developmental milestones, medical history, ear infections, family history \nof disorders, behavioural and emotional issues, medication, play, fine and gross motor \ndevelopment, parental education level and referral to primary school. The sample of children \nwas then grouped into severity and types of language impairment: moderate receptive and \nexpressive language impairment, severe receptive and expressive language impairment, and \nmoderate expressive language impairment. These groups were analysed and described in \nterms of associated variables, degree of improvement made in receptive and expressive \nlanguage ability, as well as variables which may influence progress including number of \nassociated variables, age of admission and length of time attending The Centre for Language \nand Hearing Impaired Children. The findings of this study were statistically significant for \nintensive intervention in receptive grammatical morphology, receptive syntax, expressive \nvocabulary in the initial stages of intervention, and expressive syntax, indicating that \nintensive structured language intervention was effective for this population of language \nimpaired children. Receptive vocabulary was the only language area in the study that did not \nimprove, and this finding highlights the importance of assessment and direct intervention for \nreceptive abstract vocabulary. Certain associated variables manifested more frequently than \nothers in the case history profiles of this population of language impaired children, specifically \nbehavioural problems, medical issues, a family history of related difficulties, and delay in first \nword and first sentence production. Overall, the number of associated factors in this study \nhad a cumulative effect in determining severity of the impairment, but did not appear to \nnegatively impact progress in intervention. In many of the language areas where catch-up \nimprovement occurred, a high number of associated factors was found. Age at admission and \namount of time spent at The Centre for Language and Hearing Impaired Children appeared to \nbe important factors in determining catch-up improvement in the various language areas of \nthis population, particularly the severely impaired children. The limitations of this study and \nrelated thoughts for future research are discussed.
Author: Jennifer Mulligan
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2292672486