The Relationship Between Dynamic Seating and Expressive Language in Preschoolers with a Language Delay

Thursday, 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Seabright
Poster 2
Once children begin preschool, they are often expected to sit in a chair at a table during speech-language therapy. Prior research suggests that preschoolers with developmental disabilities demonstrate an improvement in academic performance and in-seat behavior when seated on therapy balls as opposed to regular classroom chairs. In this study, a single-subject, multiple-baseline design was used to investigate what, if any, effect sitting on a therapy ball has on the expressive language of preschool children with a language delay. The participants were three preschool children who presented with a moderate expressive language delay. Three 2-minute language samples were collected (1 narrative retell, 1 play-based, and 1 conversational) under two conditions: while the participants were seated on a chair and while they were seated on a therapy ball. Results indicate that MLU increased for all participants when seated on the ball during the narrative retell task. For one participant, MLU increased across all three language samples when seated on the ball.
Track: 
Pediatric