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 and asking targeted questions to 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