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Penetrating the Classroom Social Network for Children With Language Impairment Via Peer Mediated Intervention

NCT06182033 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 30

Last updated 2025-01-16

Study results available
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Summary

This exploratory experiment is designed to determine the extent to which the socialization experiences and social, behavioral, and linguistic skills of preschoolers with language impairment (LI) can be improved. The investigators implement a peer-mediated intervention in inclusive preschool classrooms, randomly assigned to treatment (n=12) or control (n=13) conditions. A focal child is identified in each classroom, representing a child with LI (3 to 5 years of age) who exhibits the poorest pragmatic-language skills and highest level of social exclusion in the classroom. Over a 12-week period, the focal children will receive peer-mediated intervention from identified peers, who use strategies to engage the focal child socially during center time, as supported by a classroom facilitator (teacher, aide). Outcomes of interest include the overarching classroom social network and its embedded socialization processes (e.g., frequency of child-to-child interaction), the focal child's interactions with peers and exposure to peer talk, and the focal child's social, behavioral, and linguistic skills. The study employs state-of-the-art social network analyses to represent the classroom network at the child, dyad, and network level and is dynamically modeled over the academic year using advanced location-tracking technologies and voice-activated recorders to capture incoming and outgoing peer talk for the focal child. The investigators anticipate the results of this study to yield significant theoretical and scientific impact. Theoretically, the investigators propose that improved socialization experiences in the preschool classroom can disrupt the social exclusion and peer maltreatment experienced by children with LI, leading to accelerated growth in linguistic, social, and behavioral outcomes for children with LI.

Conditions

  • Peer Influence

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Peer-mediated pivotal response training

Teachers support children in the implementation of three strategies directed toward a target child identified as having language impairment and as isolated from the classroom social network.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Ohio State University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Laura M Justice, PhD · Ohio State University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
36 Months
Max Age
66 Months
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2021-11-11
Primary Completion
2023-05-30
Completion
2023-07-20

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT06182033 on ClinicalTrials.gov