The effectiveness of semantic therapy for the word finding difficulties of children with severe and complex speech, language and communication needs

Abstract

with severe and complex speech, language and communication needsThe effectiveness of semantic therapy for the word finding difficulties of children Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com can be found at: Child Language Teaching and Therapy Additional services and information for AbstractWord finding difficulties are often seen in children with language difficulties. Their problem is readily observed and has led to investigations of its nature and encouraged attempts at intervention. Semantic errors in their naming suggest that their knowledge of items is poorly developed and that therapies to strengthen it may be effective. Twelve children between 7 and 11 years of age were offered 3 hours of semantic therapy in two 15-minute sessions per week for 6 weeks. The children had severe and complex speech, language and communication needs and all were in the bottom 5% for their age on a test of word finding. Two categories of items were treated. Each category was divided into sets of items that were directly treated, and items which appeared during therapy but were not specifically targeted. Categories and sets of items were counterbalanced across children. The children were blind assessed on naming the items before and after therapy and at a maintenance assessment 6 weeks after the treatment ceased. The children improved significantly on the treated items and on untreated items from the same category but not on items from the untreated category. Improvement was maintained at the maintenance assessment. Although results were significant, only medium effect sizes were obtained. These results add to the evidence that semantic therapy can help children with word finding difficulties. In assessing their clinical significance, the severity of the children's communication problems should be taken into account.

Intervention for children with word-finding difficulties: a parallel group randomised control trial

“…It would also be interesting to know whether generalisation to items related in meaning or sound to the treated words occurred. Wilson et al (2015) conducted an intervention study targeting semantics, including category decisions and semantic questions, e.g. ''what do you do with it?''.…”

“…Future research should also include a control set of items systematically related to the target words (Wilson et al, 2015).…”

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

“…For examples of studies which have used this design with single cases see Parsons, Law, and Gascoigne (2005), for group studies which have combined a range of targets see Mecrow, Beckwith, and Klee (2010) and Ebbels et al (in press) and for studies with counter-balancing of targets and controls across participants see Wilson, Aldersley, Dobson, Edgar, Harding, Luckins et al (2015).…”

Vocabulary intervention for adolescents with language disorder: a systematic review

“…, St. John and Vance , Wilson et al . ). Semantic intervention includes providing opportunities for children to develop their awareness of function, location, attribute, category, similarities and differences, how to describe what words mean, and how words link with other words which have morphological similarities.…”

“…Examples of studies looking at primary school‐age children with language disorder and examining phonological–semantic intervention include Wilson et al . (), working in a specialist language educational setting with twelve 7–10‐year‐olds, intervention being delivered individually by SLTs. In contrast, St. John and Vance () used a small group setting in a mainstream primary school with eighteen 5–6‐year‐olds, with the intervention being delivered by the teacher.…”