Volume 12, Number 1, Spring 2017

Linguistic Trade-Offs After A Short-Term Narrative Intervention

AUTHOR(S):

• Maria Resendiz, PhD, CCC-SLP, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
• Lisa M. Bedore, PhD, CCC-SLP, Elizabeth D. Peña, PhD, CCC-SLP, University of Texas at Austin
• Christine Fiestas, PhD, CCC-SLP, Texas A&M University - Kingsville
• Maria Diana Gonzales, PhD, CCC-SLP, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
• Amy Louise Schwarz, PhD, CCC-SLP, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX

ABSTRACT

Long term gains in syntactic complexity for children with language impairment (LI) occur when syntactic complexity is explicitly targeted in narrative interventions (Petersen, Gillam, Spencer, & Gillam, 2010). Short term gains in language skills not explicitly targeted, such as increased production of syntactic complexity, are rarely reported in the literature (Davies, Shanks, & Davies, 2004; Wolter & Green, 2013). Despite this evidence, Ebbels (2014) suggests that indirect approaches can be effective for teaching syntax. The current study tests Ebbels (2014) assertion by comparing measures of syntactic complexity in the narrative productions of 46 children (M age = 7 years, 6 months) from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds after two intervention sessions that targeted story grammar components, but not syntactic complexity. Fourteen children were identified as LI and 32 children were identified as typically developing (TD). All children exhibited increases from pre-testing to post-testing in the number of grammatical utterances they produced. However, only children with LI demonstrated a linguistic trade off. Their use of complex utterances and morpho-syntactic overgeneralizations both increased. So, the trade-off for improvements in complex syntax is morpho-syntactic accuracy.

DOI:

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