Promoting Productions Of Elaborated Verb Phrases Among Cantonese-Speaking Children With Language Difficulties Using Statistical Learning

Cantonese-speaking children with language disorders were found to perform poorly in syntax, as the majority of the children in Hong Kong have been reported to demonstrate low usage of complex constructions, especially elaborated verb phrases and prepositional phrases. Studies further suggested that poor syntax could associate with deficits in microstructures in narrative productions and affect children’s academic development. Thus, it is hypothesized that language intervention on morphosyntax can enhance language acquisition among Cantonese-speaking children with language disorders. Recent studies further demonstrated that language intervention designed according to the statistical learning principles is effective in promoting the acquisition of not only typically developing children but also children with language difficulties. The current study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a language intervention designed according to the statistical learning principles to promote the acquisition of elaborated verb phrases and prepositional phrases on Cantonese-speaking children with language disorders.
Methods: A total of 16 Cantonese-speaking children (four female; mean age = 6.70 years) with language disorder were recruited. The participants were initially divided into the ‘Treatment’ and the ‘Control’ groups. A total of eight sessions of language treatment, which focused on giving systematic language input of elaborated verb phrases and prepositional phrases, were conducted on each child. Pre- and post-treatment measures of number of elaborated verb phrases and prepositional phrases in language samples collected from two narrative tasks and conversations with the clinicians were obtained.
Results: Results showed that the Treatment group produced significantly more expanded verb phrases in the post- treatment language samples, while the Control group did not. Neither the Treatment group nor the Control group showed improvements in the number of prepositional phrases produced.
Discussion: The significant group difference in the production of elaborated verb phrases supported that the Cantonese- speaking children with language disorders were responsive to language intervention designed according to statistical learning principles. The insignificant improvement in the production of prepositional phrases by both groups indicated that the acquisition of prepositional phrases in Cantonese may require much more than the statistical regularity of the corresponding structure. Theoretical and clinical implications will be discussed.