Strategies for Teaching Verbs

Vanderbilt University Medical Center44 enrolled

Overview

This study is designed to evaluate whether children with Down syndrome and children with typical development exhibit different levels of accuracy demonstrating novel verbs taught under three conditions: semantic cues (perform action), syntactic cues (sentence frame), and combined (syntactic and semantic cues). The participants complete an eligibility evaluation and then one verb learning session (approximately 60 minutes in length). During that verb learning session they are taught sets of words under each condition (i.e., within-subjects design) and then asked to identify and label those target words immediately after instruction.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Language Development Disorders Down Syndrome Child Language

Interventions

Verb Learning Session Teaching phase. The examiner labels each target word and performs the action 6 times in each condition. She elicits the target word from the participant 2 times per word per condition and provides feedback on accuracy. Testing phase. Receptive probes are administered after every 2 words are taught. Expressive probes are at the end of the condition. For receptive probes, the examiner asks the participant to identify novel verbs and for expressive probes, the examiner asks the child to label the novel action. Testing after 2 items is designed to decrease memory load. Participants have a brief break between conditions. Data are collected on: a) child responses on standardized assessments, (b) responses to verb learning probes, (c) parent responses to intake form, and (d) relevant medical history from electronic medical record. None of the above procedures present more than minimal risk to participants or research staff. Vanderbilt IRB approved all procedures.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Accuracy Identifying Taught Words - Syntactic Condition

Participants are asked to receptively identify novel verbs taught in syntactic condition by selecting the video of the named verb from a field of two. Participants were asked to identify each of the 4 taught words per condition 3 times for a total of 12 trials per condition. This "receptive probe" has a minimum score of 0 and maximum of 12. Higher scores indicate a better outcome.