Peer-reviewed article

Immediate and Maintained Effects of Explicit and Contextualized Narrative and Expository Language Intervention for Children with Developmental Language Disorder.

Petersen DB, Hunsaker GH, Magleby T, Waldron J · 1 Apr 2026

Abstract

Background/objectives Children develop the ability to construct meaning from language long before they learn to read. These foundational language processes support learning across academic contexts and form the basis for later reading and writing. However, many students, particularly those with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), enter school with weaknesses in oral academic language that limit their ability to understand and express increasingly complex classroom discourse. Despite the central role of narrative and expository language in early instruction, explicit and systematic intervention targeting both discourse genres remains uncommon in the early grades. The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to examine the immediate and maintained effects of a structured, small-group oral language intervention targeting both narrative and expository discourse for early elementary-age students with and without DLD. Methods Participants (N = 80) were kindergarten through second-grade students identified as having DLD or significantly weak narrative language performance and were randomly assigned to an intervention condition or business-as-usual control. Narrative outcomes were collected for all participants at pretest, posttest, and a two-month follow-up, and expository outcomes were collected at posttest. Results Results indicated statistically significant intervention effects for narrative language at posttest, with gains maintained at follow-up. Treatment effects were not moderated by language status, and subgroup analyses demonstrated large effects for students with DLD. Regression analyses indicated a non-significant intervention effect on expository outcomes. Conclusions Findings provide experimental evidence that explicit, contextualized narrative and expository language instruction delivered in brief small-group sessions can produce meaningful and durable improvements in narrative language for young children, including those with DLD.