An interventional study of Conversational recasting in Developmental Language Disorder, sponsored by University of Arizona. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 4 Years to 6 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-05.
Sponsored by University of Arizona · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
This is a small-scale treatment study designed to determine which teaching methods result in the best learning. Treatment focuses on helping children with a developmental language disorder learn parts of grammar. Preschool children will receive assessments to determine whether they have a developmental language disorder and what parts of grammar they have not mastered. Children will receive one-on-one behavioral treatment over a six week period. Half of the children will be first taught a grammatical form they sometimes use and then one they rarely use. The other half will only be treated for a grammatical form they rarely use. The study seeks to determine whether starting with something children sometimes use correctly (an easier part of speech) will speed later learning of something that is harder for them. The children's ability to use the grammatical forms taught to them will be assessed throughout the treatment period and approximately six weeks after treatment ends.
This is a early-efficacy treatment study designed to determine whether learning of a very low-use grammatical form can be made more efficient by beginning treatment with a form that is partially, but not fully acquired. Children qualify for the study by showing evidence of impaired language skills in the absence of intellectual disability, hearing loss, or other parent-reported handicapping conditions that could affect language skills. Preschool children with a developmental language disorder are provided 24 teaching episodes of Enhanced Conversational Recast daily for up to 25 days. Treatment gains are measured as change from baseline use of probes designed to measure generalization to untreated grammatical forms.
121 studies on the registry are indexed under Language Development Disorders; 49 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 35 is below the median of 74 across 106 interventional studies indexed under Language Development Disorders.
Browse Language Development Disorders studies →University of Arizona is the lead sponsor of 476 studies on the registry; 88 are open to participants now.
Of its 51 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 30 (59%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
The criteria were revised on the registry on Oct 5, 2026. See what changed
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Children are treated for an emergent grammatical form that is used correctly at least 60% during three pre-treatment probe sessions. This form is treated until children generalize it's use an average of 90% or more across 3 probe sessions. Their treatment target is then switched to a grammatical form that is used less than 30% correct across 3 pre-treatment probe sessions.
Behavioral: Conversational recasting
Children are treated for a grammatical form that is used accurately less than 30% of the time during 3 pre-treatment probe sessions. This form is treated for the entire treatment period
Behavioral: Conversational recasting
The treatment procedure uses 24 treatment doses embedded into child-friendly activities (crafts, book reading, play). Each each consists of a clinician eliciting use of a targeted grammatical form, a child's attempt (correct or incorrect) to use that form, and an immediate clinician repetition of the child's attempt (a recast), correcting any ungrammatical elements as needed. Clinicians must also attempt to gain the child's attention before providing the recast. Treatment sessions are approximately 30 minutes in duration.
The Average Percent Correct Use of Treated Grammatical Forms in Untreated Contexts
Clinicians elicit ten uses of the trained grammatical form using toys, activities, and vocabulary with-held from treatment sessions. This is done on each of three days at the end of the treatment period. The percent use calculated as (#correct/10)\*100 is calculated over three days at the end of treatment, and these values are averaged for each child. Note that only performance on the hard target is considered in the analysis, even for children previously treated on an easier target. This tests the hypothesis that prior treatment of an easy target speeds learning of a hard target, compared to starting treatment with a hard target. The easy target is not compared to the hard target because, by design, this target to a high level of use, whereas learning levels for the hard target are free to vary.
Time frame: Three sessions conducted on three separate days during the sixth week of treatment.
Retention of Trained Grammatical Forms
Clinicians elicit ten uses of the trained grammatical form using toys, activities, and vocabulary with-held from treatment sessions and the percent correct use is calculated as (#correct/10)\*100.
Time frame: One session, approximately 6 weeks after treatment concludes.
Overall Treatment Efficacy
This analysis tests the hypothesis that the treatment in general (collapsed across treatment arms) leads to gains in the use of treated grammatical forms compared with no treatment of grammatical forms. Measures reporting single-participant treatment effect size are typically reported with a Unit of Measure in treatment effect size d. Single-subject treatment effect size d metric reflects gains in morpheme use from baseline levels to the end of treatment, for each individual child. This is calculated for each of the Target and Control morphemes as "Generalization d = ((end treatment percent correct mean - pretreatment percent correct mean)/ (end treatment standard deviation)). Note that the percent correct means are based on the average percent correct use for three sessions pretreatment and during the 6th week of treatment.
Time frame: Three sessions conducted on three separate days during the sixth week of treatment.
| Milestone | Easy First | Hard Only |
|---|---|---|
| Started | 18 | 17 |
| Completed | 17 | 17 |
| Not completed | 1 | 0 |
| Withdrew: Excessive absences | 1 | 0 |
Clinicians elicit ten uses of the trained grammatical form using toys, activities, and vocabulary with-held from treatment sessions. This is done on each of three days at the end of the treatment period. The percent use calculated as (#correct/10)\*100 is calculated over three days at the end of treatment, and these values are averaged for each child. Note that only performance on the hard target is considered in the analysis, even for children previously treated on an easier target. This tests the hypothesis that prior treatment of an easy target speeds learning of a hard target, compared to starting treatment with a hard target. The easy target is not compared to the hard target because, by design, this target to a high level of use, whereas learning levels for the hard target are free to vary.
| percent correct use | Easy First | Hard Only |
|---|---|---|
| The Average Percent Correct Use of Treated Grammatical Forms in Untreated Contexts | 52.9 ± 33.8 | 47.8 ± 41.9 |
Clinicians elicit ten uses of the trained grammatical form using toys, activities, and vocabulary with-held from treatment sessions and the percent correct use is calculated as (#correct/10)\*100.
| percent correct use | Easy First | Hard Only |
|---|---|---|
| Retention of Trained Grammatical Forms | 42.9 ± 38.7 | 29.4 ± 39.9 |
This analysis tests the hypothesis that the treatment in general (collapsed across treatment arms) leads to gains in the use of treated grammatical forms compared with no treatment of grammatical forms. Measures reporting single-participant treatment effect size are typically reported with a Unit of Measure in treatment effect size d. Single-subject treatment effect size d metric reflects gains in morpheme use from baseline levels to the end of treatment, for each individual child. This is calculated for each of the Target and Control morphemes as "Generalization d = ((end treatment percent correct mean - pretreatment percent correct mean)/ (end treatment standard deviation)). Note that the percent correct means are based on the average percent correct use for three sessions pretreatment and during the 6th week of treatment.
| treatment effect size d | Within Subjects Comparison of Overall Treatment Efficacy |
|---|---|
| Treated forms | 4.50 ± 5.77 |
| Untreated forms | -0.40 ± 1.20 |
Collected over 6 weeks. Non-serious events are listed at a 0% frequency threshold.
| Group | Deaths | Serious | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy First | 0/17 (0%) | 0/17 (0%) | 0/17 (0%) |
| Hard First | 0/17 (0%) | 0/17 (0%) | 0/17 (0%) |
One child was withdrawn from the study due to excessive absences that prevented collection of the data.
| Age, Categorical(Participants) | Easy First | Hard Only | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| <=18 years | 17 | 17 | 34 |
| Between 18 and 65 years | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| >=65 years | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Age, Continuous(years) | Easy First | Hard Only | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | 5 ± .5 | 5 ± .4 | 5 ± .5 |
| Sex: Female, Male(Participants) | Easy First | Hard Only | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 5 | 4 | 9 |
| Male | 12 | 13 | 25 |
| Race (NIH/OMB)(Participants) | Easy First | Hard Only | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Asian | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Black or African American | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| White | 8 | 11 | 19 |
| More than one race | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown or Not Reported | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB)(Participants) | Easy First | Hard Only | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hispanic or Latino | 11 | 11 | 22 |
| Not Hispanic or Latino | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Unknown or Not Reported | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Pre-treatment baseline use of "hard" grammatical forms(percent correct use) | Easy First | Hard Only | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | 6.3 ± 6.9 | 6.1 ± 8.0 | 6.1 ± 7.4 |
| Pre-Treatment Baseline for "Control" Grammatical Forms(percent correct use) | Easy First | Hard Only | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | 7.0 ± 10.5 | 6.9 ± 8.1 | 6.95 ± 9.26 |
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Plan to share: Yes — Individual participant data, including clinical test scores and outcome measures, are shared in publications and presentations. Other study data is provided by request from the study PI.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Clinical study report, Analytic code
Time frame: Data is available for sharing after initial publication and for a minimum of 5 years after publication.
Access criteria: Secondary use must be consistent with the intent of the original consent document.
Ran from Feb 2022 to primary completion in Oct 2024, 32 months.
Results were first posted in Oct 2026, 1 year 11 months after primary completion.
Of 72 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Language Development Disorders, half reached primary completion within 30 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 19 and three quarters within 57. This study's 32 months is close to that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 72 studies reached it within 30 months; a quarter within 19 and three quarters within 57.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
This study is completed, as verified in Jan 2024. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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