Accounting for individual differences when comparing the effectiveness of remedial language teaching methods

ABSTRACT Two language intervention methods were compared on their effectiveness at improving syntactic structures as measured by gain scores on the Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) procedure. Forty-one expressive language delayed children were assigned to either an Interactive approach (n = 25) or a Programmed approach (n = 16), following a series of 13 pre-training diagnostic tests. An analysis of group mean DSS gain scores did not indicate a significant difference between the two teaching methods. However, when individual differences on the pre-training tests were incorporated into further group comparisons, disordinal Aptitude × Treatment interactions occurred for measures of intelligence, initial syntax level, and visual-motor integration. The Interactive approach optimized syntax improvement for children with relatively high pre-training scores on each of the three measures, whereas the Programmed approach resulted in superior syntax performance for low-scoring children.

[1]  S. Ervin,et al.  THE DEVELOPMENT OF GRAMMAR IN CHILD LANGUAGE. , 1964, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[2]  Roger S. Brown,et al.  Three Processes in the Child's Acquisition of Syntax , 1964 .

[3]  David C. Berliner,et al.  Effects of Position and Type of Question on Learning from Prose Material: Interaction of Treatments with Individual Differences. , 1974 .

[4]  R. Brown,et al.  A First Language , 1973 .

[5]  M. Harris,et al.  Some factors affecting the complexity of children's sentences: The effects of modeling, age, sex, and bilingualism , 1972 .

[6]  A. Wesman,et al.  The standardization of the Wechsler intelligence scale for children. , 1950, Journal of consulting psychology.

[7]  L. Bloom.  Language Development: Form and Function in Emerging Grammars , 1970 .

[8]  David McNeill,et al.  The Acquisition of Language: The Study of Developmental Psycholinguistics , 1970 .

[9]  J. D. MacDonald,et al.  Environmental language intervention: the rationale for a diagnostic and training strategy through rules, context, and generalization. , 1974, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[10]  J. Eisenson.  Aphasia in children , 1972 .

[11]  M. Silverman,et al.  Speech therapy and language recovery in severe aphasia. , 1970, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[12]  M. A. Merrill,et al.  Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale , 1972 .

[13]  L. L. Lee.  A screening test for syntax development. , 1970, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[14]  J R Muma.  The communication game: dump and play. , 1975, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[15]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  वाक्यविन्यास का सैद्धान्तिक पक्ष = Aspects of the theory of syntax , 1965 .

[16]  P. H. Jackson,et al.  Statistical analysis in psychology and education , 1960 .

[17]  T. Rosenthal,et al.  Incentives versus instructions in transmitting grammatical parameters with experimenter as model , 1970 .

[18]  L L Lee,et al.  Developmental sentence scoring: a clinical procedure for estimating syntactic development in children's spontaneous speech. , 1971, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[19]  F. Dowaliby,et al.  Teacher-centered versus student-centered mode of college classroom instruction as related to manifest anxiety. , 1973, Journal of educational psychology.

[20]  Glenn H. Bracht.  Experimental Factors Related to Aptitude-Treatment Interactions , 1970 .

[21]  Roger S. Brown,et al.  The development of Wh questions in child speech , 1968 .

[22]  J. Sonderman,et al.  A syntax program designed to present base linguistic structures to language-disordered children. , 1979, Journal of communication disorders.

[23]  Lyle L. Lloyd,et al.  Language Perspectives: Acquisition, Retardation, and Intervention , 1974 .

[24]  Sigmund Tobias,et al.  Sequence, Familiarity, and Attribute by Treatment Interactions in Programmed Instruction. , 1973 .

[25]  B. Gray,et al.  The development of language as a function of programmed conditioning. , 1968, Behaviour research and therapy.

[26]  Acquisition of Imitative Speech by Schizophrenic Children , 1966, Science.

[27]  T. Risley,et al.  Establishing functional speech in echolalic children. , 1967, Behaviour research and therapy.

[28]  Patricia M. Greenfield,et al.  Normal and deficient child language , 1976 .

[29]  Leon Presser.  Structured languages , 1975, AFIPS National Computer Conference.

[30]  C. Cazden.  The acquisition of noun and verb inflections. , 1968, Child development.

[31]  Ray L. Huff,et al.  Effects of age and rule familiarity on the production of modeled language constructions. , 1969 .

[32]  J. Sheehan,et al.  Stuttering and assertion training. , 1974, Journal of communication disorders.

[33]  B. J. Winer.  Statistical Principles in Experimental Design , 1992 .

[34]  P. Friedman,et al.  Syntax development in boys and girls. , 1976 .