‘MetaTaal’: enhancing complex syntax in children with specific language impairment—a metalinguistic and multimodal approach

Abstract

Background Currently, most research on the effective treatment of morphosyntax in children with specific language impairment (SLI) pertains to younger children. In the last two decades, several studies have provided evidence that intervention for older school‐age children with SLI can be effective. These metalinguistic intervention approaches teach grammatical rules explicitly and use shapes and colours as two‐dimensional visual support. Reading or writing activities form a substantial part of these interventions. However, some children with SLI are poor readers and might benefit more from an approach that is less dependent on literacy skills. Aims To examine the effectiveness of a combined metalinguistic and multimodal approach in older school‐age children with SLI. The intervention was adapted to suit poor readers and targeted the improvement of relative clause production, because relative clauses still pose difficulties for older children with SLI. Methods & Procedures Participants were 12 monolingual Dutch children with SLI (mean age 11;2). All children visited a special school for children with speech and language disorders in the Netherlands. A quasi‐experimental multiple‐baseline design was chosen to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. A set of tasks was constructed to test relative clause production and comprehension. Two balanced versions were alternated in order to suppress a possible learning effect from multiple presentations of the tasks. After 3 monthly baseline measurements, the children received individual treatment with a protocolled intervention programme twice a week during 5 weeks. The tests were repeated directly post‐therapy and at a retention measurement 3 months later. During the intervention programme, the speech therapist delivering the treatment remained blind to the test results. Outcomes & Results No significant changes were found during the baseline measurements. However, measurement directly post‐therapy showed that 5 h of intervention produced significant improvement on the relative clause production tasks, but not on the relative clause comprehension task. The gains were also maintained 3 months later. Conclusions & Implications The motor and tactile/kinesthetic dimensions of the ‘MetaTaal’ metalinguistic intervention approach are a valuable addition to the existing metalinguistic approaches. This study supports the evidence that grammatical skills in older school‐age children with SLI can be remediated with direct intervention using a metalinguistic approach. The current tendency to diminish direct intervention for older children with SLI should be reconsidered.

Effectiveness of intervention with visual templates targeting tense and plural agreement in copula and auxiliary structures in school-aged children with complex needs: a pilot study

“…There is growing evidence to support the effectiveness of the use of multi-modal approaches to teaching grammatical structures to children with DLD (Zwitserlood, Wijnen, van Weerdenburg &Verhoeven, 2015;Ebbels, 2007;Ebbels & van der Lely, 2001;Ebbels, van der Lely & Dockrell, 2007;Ebbels, Maric, Murphy & Turner, 2014) and we hypothesise such approachescould support acquisition of grammatical structures for individuals with more complex needs, including those with DS. The Shape Coding TM system uses shapes, colours and arrows to make the grammatical rules of English explicit and, of particular relevance to this study, uses lines and arrows as a visual prompt to support a learner's acquisition of plural and tense agreements.…”

Doeltreffendheid interventie ‘Communicatie via Scherm’: de verbetering van metalinguïstische en taalvaardigheden van kinderen met een TOS

“…Door ze te combineren wordt de morfosyntaxis van zinnen 2D weergegeven. Zwitserlood et al, 2015 Productie relatieve bijzinnen 11…”

Intervention research: Appraising study designs, interpreting findings and creating research in clinical practice

“…In contrast, a change of slope in the intervention period compared with the baseline period could be due to the intervention (see Howard for a description of how to analyse this statistically within a single subject). For examples of this design used with a group see Zwitserlood, Wijnen, van Weerdenburg, and Verhoeven (2015), Bolderson, Dosanjh, Milligan, Pring, andChiat (2011), Falkus, Tilley, Thomas, Hockey, Kennedy, Arnold et al (2016) and Petersen, Gillam, and Gillam (2008) and for examples of studies with single cases see Riches (2013) and Kambanaros, Michaelides, and Grohmann (2016).…”