# Identification of treatment parameters that maximize language treatment efficacy for children.

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA · 2020 · $606,922

## Abstract

Poor language skills undermine academic success, which eventually impacts socio-economic outcomes and
quality of life. When deficient language skills are first noticed in young children, there is relatively little time
available to close the gap before they are faced with the increased language demands of formal education as
well as the potential for academic failure. For the 8-13% of preschool children with impaired language skills,
language treatments that are faster and more effective are urgently needed. Yet current treatments are
notoriously protracted and expensive, and the effects of treatment can be weak. There is a growing call among
scholars to step back from the business-as-usual approach to treatment research in favor of a systematic
approach that integrates promising theoretical frameworks with experimental manipulations designed to isolate
and enhance the effective components of treatment approaches. This grant proposes to leverage insights from
the statistical learning perspective on language acquisition, which explains rapid, unguided learning sometimes
even in the presence of impaired language. The grant proposes six treatment studies that target two groups of
children with poor language skills. “Late Talkers” are children (ages 2-3 years) who are identified by their
limited lexicons. Preschool children with specific language impairment (ages 4-5 years) show marked deficits in
the use of grammatical morphemes. Parallel sets of studies with these two populations will determine the
extent to which treatment variables enhance or detract from treatment efficacy across language domains. The
goal of this work will be to identify specific treatment methods, derived from general learning principles, that
clinicians can employ to enhance learning outcomes for children with impaired language skills.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9964792
- **Project number:** 5R01DC015642-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
- **Principal Investigator:** MARY ALT
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $606,922
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-07-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9964792

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9964792, Identification of treatment parameters that maximize language treatment efficacy for children. (5R01DC015642-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9964792. Licensed CC0.

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