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Unpublished Paper
Grammatical Treamtment and Specific Language Impairment: Neighborhood Density & Third Person Singular -s
Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics (2013)
  • Jill R. Hoover
  • Holly L. Storkel
Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of manipulating verb neighbourhood density in treatment targeting the third person singular lexical affix. Using a single-subject experimental design, six pre-schoolers with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (1) treatment with sparse verbs or (2) treatment with dense verbs in 12 sessions. The third person singular lexical affix was targeted for 12 sessions of treatment in both conditions. Treatment gain and generalization were measured as the dependent variables. Third person singular % correct change from pre-treatment to post-treatment was measured using sentence production tasks with comparisons across the two treatment conditions. Treatment gain and generalization were greater for children enrolled in the sparse condition. Preliminary clinical recommendations are made and theoretical implications are discussed relative to neighbourhood density effects on lexical activation and storage in children with SLI.

Keywords
  • Specific Language impairment,
  • language intervention,
  • neighborhood density,
  • finiteness markers
Publication Date
2013
Comments
Prepublished author manuscript. The published version is located at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23819675
Citation Information
Jill R. Hoover and Holly L. Storkel. "Grammatical Treamtment and Specific Language Impairment: Neighborhood Density & Third Person Singular -s" Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jill_hoover/7/