Do the Hard Things First: A Randomized Controlled Trial Testing the Effects of Exemplar Selection on Generalization Following Therapy for Grammatical Morphology

Abstract

When targeting grammatical morphemes, it may be most efficient for clinicians to select harder rather than easier exemplars of the target.

The case for treatment fidelity in active music interventions: why and how

“…It is the authors’ hope that this study will stimulate others who are developing music interventions to provide evidence for the effectiveness of music treatment programs and shed light on the mechanisms through which music treatment programs drive change in language outcomes (i.e., more broadly via client–therapist relationship or elements that directly increase neural plasticity via shared brain networks for music language). When the intensity of administration of treatment components are described and used to show that the treatment is effective, rigorously designed studies can proceed to differential testing based on changes to intensity …”

“…Borrelli defined five key fidelity components that should be measured and reported. In this section, we elaborate on four of Borelli's components of fidelity (Table ) and give examples of how these methods can be adopted from language intervention studies in speech‐language pathology and clinical psychology . While we focus here on the importance of treatment fidelity for assessing the effects of music intervention in children with clinical language disorders, all of the components of treatment fidelity are applicable to research studies on music training conducted in educational settings in children with typical development.…”

“…The treatment protocol should also be reported in detail, as Van Horne et al . described in their recent randomized control trial of grammar therapy . Providing a flowchart to describe treatment activities lends itself to interventions in which the subsequent administration of the treatment is dependent on the actions or success of the participants.…”

“…monitored administration through videotapes and coded data that were collected on a reported subset of taped sessions. Provider adherence was reported, and dosages of stimuli and recast models were calculated per minute . While methods of coding treatment sessions can be time‐consuming in a large treatment study, the methodological rigor and information to be gained regarding administration of treatment make it a worthy investment.…”

“…It is reasonable to assume that high participant engagement and skill might lead to better outcomes and that not all participants will be equally engaged and competent, even if the treatment was administered in an equal manner to all participants. Van Horne et al . addressed treatment receipt by reporting group differences with regard to how many visits each child took to complete the treatment and elaborated on individual cases of children who did not advance during treatment.…”