A book-sharing programme can improve inferencing in children with DLD

Citation

Dawes, E. Leitão, S., Claessen, M., & Kane, R. (2019). A randomised controlled trial of an oral inferential comprehension book sharing intervention for young children with developmental language disorder. Child Language Teaching & Therapy, 35(1), 39-54.

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Key terms that are in this paper

·         Literal comprehension - understanding the direct meaning of what you hear or read.

·         Inferential comprehension - understanding the indirect meaning of what you hear or read by making links with what you know.

Aim of the paper

·         This paper aimed to test a new programme helping children with DLD with their inferencing skills.

·         Children with DLD struggle with inferencing. This could cause difficulty understanding indirect, unstated meanings.

·         For children, inferencing in language is important. For example, when understanding conversations and lessons at school.

·         Therefore, programmes like the one in this paper could be helpful for children with DLD. For example, it could help them socialise and support their learning at school.

·         The programme involves reading books with the child using specific methods, such as asking questions and talking about the story, to help support understanding of direct and indirect meanings in the story.

·         This paper looked at whether the programme improved inferencing in 5-6-year-old children with DLD.

What was found

·         Children with DLD showed stronger inferencing skills after taking part in the programme.

·         This improvement was still present two months after the programme finished. 

What does this mean?

·         This research shows that young children with DLD can improve their inferencing skills through targeted support.

·         Children’s improvements were maintained over time.

·         The book-sharing programme could be used in speech and language therapy.

Where can I read this paper?

·         You can read the whole paper for free by following this link: https://doi.org/10.1177/0265659018815736 

·         YouTube summary: https://youtu.be/z3SXK4O4g5g