Helping children with developmental language disorder understand complex sentences
Official title: Treating Complex Sentences in Children with DLD
Funded at Ohio University Athens · NIH-11324939 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project compares two different teaching approaches to help school-age children with developmental language disorder understand and use complex sentences like passives and relative clauses.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Ohio University Athens NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Athens, United States) |
| Project start | August 1, 2024 |
| Project end | April 30, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $605,545 |
| NIH project number | 5R01DC021429-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11324939 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Children with a diagnosed Developmental Language Disorder who have trouble understanding or producing complex sentences (for example, passives and relative clauses) would be ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
Children whose communication problems are primarily caused by hearing loss, intellectual disability, or severe autism spectrum disorder may not benefit from these language-focused interventions.
What this research studies
Your child would be taught using one of two new methods: one that explicitly teaches grammar rules and one that promotes learning through practice without explicit rule instruction. The team will run two randomized clinical trials to see how each method affects skills during therapy and the ability to use complex sentences in everyday situations. They expect explicit rule teaching to give quick in-session gains but less automatic use outside therapy, while implicit learning may build slower but more generalizable skills. The aim is to find approaches that help children use complex language more naturally at school and in social settings.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could give speech-language clinicians better ways to help children with DLD use complex sentences more automatically in school and social settings.
How similar studies have gone: Prior work shows explicit grammar teaching often improves performance during therapy but may not generalize well, while implicit-learning approaches are less tested but show promise for more natural use.
Where this research is happening
-
Ohio University Athens
Athens, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Montgomery, James W — Ohio University Athens
- Study coordinator: Montgomery, James W
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.