Benjamin, Lucy Emma;
(2022)
All Singing All Dancing: Methods to Evaluate and Support the Development of Idiom Skills in Seven to 16 year olds with Developmental Language Disorder.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Preview |
Text
Benjamin_10148446_Thesis_sig-removed.pdf Download (6MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Introduction: Nine to 16 year olds with developmental language disorder (DLD) tend to have significant difficulties with understanding and using idioms. However, research investigating methods to assess or improve these skills has been limited. Aims: 1. Examine idiom skills in Typically Developing (TD) children and children with DLD. 2. Investigate the effectiveness of idiom skills intervention delivered through 1:1 SLT and classroom-based sessions for children with DLD. Methods: Seventy-two TD children attending mainstream schools and fifty-eight children attending a specialist school for children with DLD completed a bespoke idiom skills assessment. Forty-nine of the children with DLD (aged nine-16) then received twenty idiom skill intervention sessions during two school terms. Following a baseline period of one term, twenty-five participants (aged 11-16) received 1:1 intervention for one term and classroom-based intervention for the next term. The other twenty-four participants (aged 9-16) received classroom-based followed by 1:1 intervention. Classroom-based intervention was delivered collaboratively by English teachers and SLTs during English lessons and 1:1 intervention by the participants’ usual SLT. Intervention was the same for both delivery methods involving a prescriptive powerpoint presentation and worksheet alongside discussion. All participants were assessed on their ability to identify, understand, explain and use idioms before and after each intervention, using a bespoke assessment including 48 idioms which were randomly assigned to three sets: 16 idioms targeted in 1:1 SLT, 16 targeted in classroom-based intervention and a control group of 16 idioms that were not targeted. Results and Conclusions: TD participants achieved higher scores than DLD participants on all aspects of testing. Both 1:1 SLT and classroom-based delivery methods were effective for improving idiom skills but there was not sufficient evidence to show that idiom skills generalised. Intervention can be effective for improving the idiom skills of nine-16 year olds with severe DLD. More research is required to investigate methods to generalise idiom skill components, especially receptive idiom skills.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | All Singing All Dancing: Methods to Evaluate and Support the Development of Idiom Skills in Seven to 16 year olds with Developmental Language Disorder |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Language and Cognition UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10148446 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
