Purpose
This systematic review and meta-analysis critically evaluated the research evidence on the effectiveness of conversational recasts on grammatical development for children with language impairments.
Method
Two different but complementary reviews were conducted and then integrated. Systematic searches of the literature resulted in 35 articles for the systematic review. Studies that employed a wide variety of study designs were involved but all examined interventions where recasts were the key component. The meta-analysis only included studies that allowed the calculation of effect sizes, but it did include package interventions in which recasts were a major part. Fourteen studies were included, 7 of which were also in the systematic review. Studies were grouped according to research phase and rated for quality.
Results
Study quality and thus strength of evidence varied substantially. Nevertheless, across all phases, the vast majority of studies provided support for the use of recasts. Meta-analyses found average effect sizes of .96 for proximal measures and 0.76 for distal measures, reflecting a positive benefit of about ¾ to one standard deviation.
Conclusion
The available evidence is limited but it is supportive of the use of recasts in grammatical intervention. Critical features of recasts in grammatical interventions are discussed.
Purpose
Spoken language skills of 3- and 6-year-old children who are hard of
hearing (HH) were compared to those of children with normal hearing
(NH).
Method
Language skills were measured via MLU in words and percent correct
use of finite verb morphology in obligatory contexts based on spontaneous
conversational samples gathered from 185 children (145 HH; 40 NH). Aided
speech intelligibility index (aided SII), better ear pure tone average
(BE-PTA), maternal education, and age of amplification were used to predict
outcomes within the HH group.
Results
On average, the HH group had MLUws that were .25-.5 words shorter
than the NH group at both ages and they produced fewer obligatory verb
morphemes. After age, aided SII and age of amplification predicted MLUw.
Aided SII and PTA were not interchangeable in this analysis. Age followed by
either PTA or aided SII best predicted verb morphology use.
Conclusions
Children who are HH lag behind their NH peers in grammatical aspects
of language. Although some children appear to catch up, more than half the
children who were HH fell below the 25th percentile. Continued
monitoring of language outcomes is warranted since children who are HH are
at increased risk for language learning difficulties.
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