ERIC Number: ED597671
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Jan
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
"Wh"-Question Intervention for Children with Language Disorders. EBP Briefs. Volume 13, Issue 3
Diehm, Emily A.; Abou-Dahech, Tala
EBP Briefs (Evidence-based Practice Briefs)
Clinical Question: For a school-age child with a language disorder, what therapy strategies are effective to improve the child's "Wh"-question answering abilities? Method: Systematic search and review. Study Sources: Academic Search Complete, ASHAWire, Education Full Text, Education Research Complete, ERIC, Google Scholar, Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection, PsycINFO. Search Terms: "wh"-questions OR "wh" questions AND school age OR child* OR preschool AND intervention OR therapy OR treatment. Number of Included Studies: 4. Primary Results: Speech-language pathologists should be aware of the developmental progression of answering "Wh"-questions, as well as what factors, beyond question type, that may influence children's "Wh"-question performance. Children who struggle to answer "Wh"-questions may benefit from a variety of instructional techniques, including strategies that: 1. increase the visual representation of complex syntactic movement (e.g., assign colors and shapes to parts of speech, phrases, or clauses); 2. increase intrinsic motivation (e.g., immediately give the child an object associated with the question he/she answered); 3. increase naturalness (e.g., use a typically developing peer to answer the clinician's questions when the child is unable to do so); and 4. increase the level of modeling, feedback, and support (e.g., use an "I do, we do, you do" structure to therapy sessions) for incorrect answers to questions. Conclusions: Few studies have analyzed the effectiveness of interventions to improve "Wh"-question answering abilities in children with language impairment. Of the studies that met our inclusion criteria, the majority included special populations (i.e., autism spectrum disorder, hearing loss). Only one study investigated intervention for children with developmental language disorder (DLD). These studies also covered a wide age range (3-17 years) and question types, and no two intervention studies investigated intervention for the same "Wh"-questions. Because children with DLD frequently experience difficulty answering "Wh"-questions, there is a critical need for more research on effective interventions.
Descriptors: Questioning Techniques, Language Impairments, Intervention, Evidence Based Practice, Speech Language Pathology, Therapy, Children
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Publication Type: Information Analyses; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Pearson
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