LangCog Seminar - Cristina McKean

In this seminar I will describe the development and evaluation of a novel early language intervention for preschool children with and at risk of Language Disorder: Building Early Sentences Therapy (BEST). BEST aims to improve children’s use and understanding of sentences and is based on constructivist linguistic theory. The underlying principle of the intervention is that by manipulating the nature and quantity of the language a child hears BEST can promote the development of abstract and flexible knowledge and use of a range of predicate argument structures and simple sentences. Furthermore, that through this development of abstraction the child’s language processing becomes more efficient and so accelerates future language learning.

The approach aims to support children to use the cognitive tools hypothesised to support language learning such as categorisation, schematisation, bootstrapping, analogy, mapping, and retention through the precise manipulation of the input heard and seen within joint action routines.  In this low dosage intervention children are seen in small groups (3 – 6 children) for 15 minutes twice weekly for 8 weeks.

This seminar will summarise the intervention rationale and development, and present results from a pilot study (Trebacz et al 2023) and RCT (McKean et al under review) which demonstrate that BEST is effective, that gains generalise to non-targeted language structures and that patterns of progress suggest it can promote language development after the intervention. 

I conclude with considerations regarding implications for efficiency and cost effectiveness of the development of interventions which precisely specify and manipulate the active ingredients of the intervention. 

References

McKean, C., Pert, S., Stow, C., (2012) Building Early Sentences Therapy. Newcastle University 

McKean, Pert, Stringer, Letts, Masidlover, Trebacz, Rush, Armstrong, Conn, Sandham, Ashton, Rose (under review) A cluster randomised controlled trial comparing the efficacy of pre-school language interventions  - Building Early Sentences Therapy and an Adapted Derbyshire Language Scheme

Trebacz, A., McKean, C., Stringer, H. & Pert, S. (2024) Piloting building early sentences therapy for pre-school children with low language abilities: An examination of efficacy and the role of sign as an active ingredient. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 59, 1128–1151. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12980

There will be an opportunity for discussion over coffee following the seminar.