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Can Parents' everyday talk rewire young brains to boost language?

NCT ID NCT03782493

Disease control Sponsor: Northwestern University Source: ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

What the study statuses mean

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Recruitment status, easiest to join first

Recruiting now
This trial is taking on new participants right now.
Not yet recruiting
Registered, but not yet taking participants.
By invitation only
Not open to general applications. Only people the study team invites can take part.
Paused
Paused for now. It may or may not start again.
Ongoing
Running, but no longer taking on new participants.
Completed This study
The trial has finished. Results may not be published yet.
Stopped early
Stopped early, before it reached the end. That can be for many reasons, including safety.
Cancelled
Cancelled before anyone took part.

Expanded access (not trials)

Expanded access
Not a trial. This treatment can be requested outside a study, case by case, for people who qualify.
Expanded access (paused)
Not a trial. The treatment can normally be requested outside a study, but is unavailable right now.
Expanded access (ended)
Not a trial. The treatment could once be requested outside a study, but no longer can.
Approved
The treatment has been approved, so it is available normally rather than through this programme.

When the status isn't known

Details not published
The full record has not been published yet, so there is little to show here.
Status unknown
This status has not been confirmed recently, so it may be out of date.

First seen Aug 19, 2026 · Last updated Aug 20, 2026 · Updated 1 time

Summary

This trial tests whether a home-based, caregiver-delivered intervention called Enhanced Milieu Teaching-Sentence Focus (EMT-SF) can improve language skills in 30-month-old children with developmental language disorder. Over 18 months, caregivers learn strategies to encourage sentence use during daily routines. The study compares these children to a control group, measuring vocabulary and grammar at age 49 months to see if the intervention makes a lasting difference.

What this could mean

Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.

Active substance
Enhanced Milieu Teaching-Sentence Focus (EMT-SF), a caregiver-delivered naturalistic language intervention
What this could lead to
If effective, this could provide a practical, home-based therapy to improve language outcomes in young children with developmental language disorder.
What could go wrong
The trial is relatively small and early-stage, and results may not generalize. Success depends on caregiver commitment over 18 months.

This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.

Study facts

What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.

Phase

Phase 2

Tests whether the treatment actually works, and watches for side effects, in a larger group.

Participants

108 people

The number who actually took part.

Started

Apr 2019

Finished

Feb 2025

Lead sponsor

Other sponsor

The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.

Who can take part

This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.

Ages

27 to 31 months

Sex

Anyone

Healthy volunteers

Accepted

You do not need to have the condition being studied to take part.

Show the full entry requirements

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Parent or caregiver (mother, father, grandparent) willing to participate in caregiver training over the full 18 months of the study * Normal non-verbal cognitive abilities * Receptive and expressive language delay: * English as the only language spoken to the child in the home * Provision of signed and dated informed consent form * Attempts to imitate 10 words Exclusion Criteria: * Diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disability other than DLD (e.g., Down syndrome, ASD, intellectual disability) * Caregiver report of a major medical condition (e.g., seizures, cancer, stroke, traumatic head injury, cleft lip/palate, cerebral palsy, legally blind, any genetic diagnosis associated - - Caregiver report of preterm birth (i.e., \< 37 weeks gestation) * Caregiver report of hearing impairment or audiological testing indicating hearing thresholds \> 20dB * Caregiver report or direct observation of any problems chewing, sucking through a straw, or blowing bubbles.

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Conditions

The condition(s) this trial relates to.

familial developmental dysphasia Language Development Disorders

As listed by the trial registrant

The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.

Developmental language disorder

Contacts and locations

Locations

  • Northwestern University

    Evanston, Illinois, 60208, United States

  • Vanderbilt University

    Nashville, Tennessee, 37203-, United States

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