The nature and causes of children’s grammatical difficulties : Evidence from an intervention to improve past tense marking in children with Down syndrome
Journal article
Baxter, Rebecca, Rees, Rachel, Perovic, Alexandra and Hulme, Charles. (2022). The nature and causes of children’s grammatical difficulties : Evidence from an intervention to improve past tense marking in children with Down syndrome. Developmental Science. 25(4), p. Article e13220. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13220
Authors | Baxter, Rebecca, Rees, Rachel, Perovic, Alexandra and Hulme, Charles |
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Abstract | Children with language learning difficulties frequently display problems learning grammar. One such group is children with Down syndrome. This study evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention to teach the use of the regular simple past tense to children with Down syndrome. Trained teaching assistants delivered the intervention for 20 min per day for 10 weeks. We conducted a Randomised Controlled Trial, with a waiting list control design in which the Intervention group (N = 26) received the intervention immediately, while the delayed intervention group (N = 26) received the intervention later. Immediately following the intervention, the intervention group showed significantly larger gains in the use of regular simple past tense forms (d = 1.63 on a composite measure of simple past tense formation) as well as generalisation to verbs not explicitly taught. In addition, following the intervention children made overregularisation errors by incorrectly using regular simple past tense marking for irregular verbs; such errors support the claim that children had acquired generative knowledge underlying past tense marking. The delayed intervention control group showed identical benefits from the intervention when they received it, and the gains shown by the intervention group were maintained at follow up testing. This study shows that children with Down syndrome, who display severe language difficulties, can be taught to use simple past tense marking. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings for understanding the nature, causes and treatments of children's language difficulties are discussed. |
Keywords | Down syndrome; grammatical development; language intervention; past tense; RCT; teaching assistants |
Year | 2022 |
Journal | Developmental Science |
Journal citation | 25 (4), p. Article e13220 |
Publisher | Wiley |
ISSN | 1363-755X |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13220 |
PubMed ID | 34939269 |
Scopus EID | 2-s2.0-85123466245 |
Open access | Published as green open access |
Page range | 1-16 |
Author's accepted manuscript | License All rights reserved File Access Level Open |
Publisher's version | License All rights reserved File Access Level Controlled |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 23 Jan 2022 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 06 Dec 2021 |
Deposited | 31 May 2022 |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8xxvq/the-nature-and-causes-of-children-s-grammatical-difficulties-evidence-from-an-intervention-to-improve-past-tense-marking-in-children-with-down-syndrome
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AM_Baxter_2022_The_nature_and_causes_of_childrens.pdf | |
License: All rights reserved | |
File access level: Open |
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