Treatment Intensity for Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review
International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Segura-Pujol, H., & Briones-Rojas, C. (2021).
International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 23(5), 465-474.
This systematic review investigates the effects of treatment intensity in children, ages 3 to 7 years, with developmental language disorder (DLD) or speech language impairment (SLI).
Not stated
2009 to 2019
Primary, experimental studies
8
The authors were unable to make definitive conclusions regarding the effects of treatment intensity for children diagnosed with developmental language delay or speech language impairment due to the variety of dependent variables across studies. Preliminary research indicates that, overall, greater treatment intensity did not result in improved outcomes. "Morphology appears to be more sensitive than vocabulary to treatment intensity" (p. 472). Individual treatment, high treatment frequency for grammar, high stimuli variability, and high variability in treatment approach demonstrated large effect sizes. Session duration and treatment frequency for morphology revealed small effect sizes. Differences in effect size was not seen when vocabulary is the dependent variable. Additional research investigating the active components of treatment and the impact of treatment dosage is needed.
