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Although children with developmental language disorder demonstrate poor inferential comprehension, few studies have evaluated the effect of interventions to improve inferencing. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of a small-group intervention designed to improve oral inferential comprehension of narrative discourse. Thirty-seven 5- to 6-year-old children with developmental language disorder participated. The participants were randomly allocated to the oral inferential comprehension (IC) intervention or a control phonological awareness (PA) intervention. Small-group sessions took place twice a week over 8 weeks. Participants were assessed on narrative comprehension and phonological awareness skills pre- and post-intervention, and after a maintenance period of 8 weeks. Compared to the control PA group, the participants in the IC group demonstrated a significant increase in inferential comprehension scores from pre- to post-intervention, which was maintained over time. In addition, the IC group scored significantly higher than the PA group for inferential comprehension on a post-intervention generalization measure. There was no significant difference between the two groups for literal comprehension scores at any assessment point. The results demonstrate that the small-group intervention was effective at improving inferential comprehension of narratives in 5- to 6-year-old children with developmental language disorder. Additionally, generalized improvement was shown across the narrative context, and improvements were maintained two months following the intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrate poor oral inferential comprehension. Research investigating the skills that underpin oral inferential comprehension in young children with DLD is necessary in order to better understand and improve inferential comprehension in this population. Aims: To profile the language and cognitive skills that contribute to oral inferential comprehension in young children with DLD. Methods & Procedures: Seventy‐six children aged 5–6 years with a diagnosis of DLD were assessed on a wide range of language and cognitive measures. Oral inferential comprehension of narrative was the primary outcome measure. Outcomes & Results: Narrative macrostructure and microstructure, literal comprehension, vocabulary, phonological loop, and theory of mind were significant predictors of inferential comprehension in bivariate analyses. However, multivariate regression analysis indicated that only narrative retell macrostructure and theory of mind contributed a significant amount of unique variance to inferential comprehension. Conclusions & Implications: This study profiled the skills contributing to oral inferential comprehension in young children with DLD, to support the clinical and theoretical understanding of the ability in this population. The findings have implications for future intervention studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Children with DLD experience significant difficulties only when learning longer novel words. • Phonological short-term memory deficits impact word learning in children with DLD. • Nonword repetition has predictive value in understanding word learning potential. To investigate factors that influence word learning in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). The participants were 23 children with DLD and 26 typically developing (TD) children, aged five. Participants completed a fast mapping task (assessed using a production measure), as well as tests of nonword repetition and receptive vocabulary. We explored the effect of word length on nonword repetition and fast mapping abilities while controlling for receptive vocabulary skills. The results indicate that children with DLD demonstrate significant difficulties accurately repeating nonwords of all lengths relative to their TD peers. Children with DLD also exhibited significant difficulties with fast mapping, especially when learning longer novel words. Our findings indicate that children with DLD demonstrate an impaired capacity to encode phonological information; however, this differentially impacts their nonword repetition and fast mapping abilities. TD children may more effectively take advantage of receptive vocabulary to support performance on these tasks. Readers will understand how phonological short-term memory and receptive vocabulary contribute to fast mapping in children with DLD and in TD children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]