Research design

A randomised control intervention study is being employed. A pre-selected group of year 7 students identified with language impairments will be randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups. Students with scores of level 4c or below in the English standard assessment test given to all year 6 students will be recruited at the initial screening point.

The randomisation of students to groups will take place individually within each participating school. This will ensure that each school will have students participating in each one of the three interventions. The four therapy groups are Group A (narrative intervention at time E); Group B (vocabulary enrichment intervention at time E); Group C (combination of narrative and vocabulary enrichment for the same period of time at time E) and Group D.

Group D will act as an untreated control but will receive treatment at time G. They will be randomly assigned to one of the three treatments (A, B or C). This design allows each therapy group and the combined therapy group to be compared with the no (delayed) therapy group.  In addition a baseline period of no therapy is included after the initial assessment.  As a result the progress of each group can be compared when they are receiving and not receiving therapy (a further assessment occurs at the end of the baseline).  (See table 1 for design of study)

Table 1: Design of Study