Use of Audio Stories as Linguistic Treatment in Preschoolers with Specific Language Impairment

Audio stories deliver an often repetitive but rather complex language input without visual support to facilitate the language processing. Previous evidence shows that audio stories are hereby well suited for promoting language learning in pre-schoolers. This study was designed to test whether similar positive effects can be elicited in children with specific language impairment (SLI). A pre-post-follow-up-design was developed to compare effects in children with and without SLI (n=66) at the age from 3 to 4. Results indicate that repeated use of an audio story significantly impacts specific linguistic skills also in children with SLI. The effects resemble most of those observed in significantly younger children without language impairments but comparable phonological working memory capacities. Non handicapped children of similar age than the children with SLI had the best profit of the audio input. Results are discussed with respect to the method exemplified and consequences for treatment of children with SLI.