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How Simplified Language Affects Comprehension and Learning in Young Children With Down Syndrome

NCT06951516 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 30

Last updated 2025-04-30

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The long-term study goal is to experimentally evaluate the components (and likely active ingredients) of early language interventions for young children with Down syndrome (DS). The overall objective is to determine how single-word and telegraphic simplification affects real-time language processing and word learning in young children with DS (relative to full, grammatical utterances). The proposed project will investigate three specific aims: 1) Determine how single-word and telegraphic simplification affects language processing. 2) Determine how single-word and telegraphic simplification affects word learning. 3) Evaluate child characteristics that may moderate the effects of linguistic simplification on language processing and word learning. Aim 1 will test the hypothesis that children with DS will process grammatical utterances faster and more accurately than telegraphic or single-word utterances. Aim 2 will test the hypothesis that overall, children will demonstrate better word learning in the grammatical compared to the single-word and telegraphic conditions. Aim 3 will test the hypothesis that receptive language and nonverbal cognitive abilities will be significant moderators, such that children with stronger linguistic and cognitive skills will show the greatest benefit from grammatical input but children with lower linguistic and cognitive scores will perform similarly across conditions.

Conditions

  • Down Syndrome

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Linguistic simplification

Children will participate in screen-based language processing and word learning tasks in which they hear utterances with different types and amounts of linguistic simplification (i.e., a within-group manipulation).

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

    collaborator NIH

  • Michigan State University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Courtney Venker, PhD · Michigan State University

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
2 Years
Max Age
7 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-01-01
Primary Completion
2027-05-31
Completion
2027-05-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Companies

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 NCT06951516 on ClinicalTrials.gov