The Effects of PROsyntax in Children with Developmental Language Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Nonrandomized Controlled Trial
Twenty-four short PROsyntax lessons doubled syntax skills for preschoolers with autism or language delay.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested a new program called PROsyntax. It gives clear, step-by-step lessons on sentence structure.
Preschoolers with autism or language delay got two one-hour sessions a week for twelve weeks. A control group kept their usual classes with no extra syntax work.
What they found
Kids who received PROsyntax made very large gains in both speaking and understanding sentences. The control group showed little change.
The improvement was so big that the authors call it a huge effect, larger than most language interventions report.
How this fits with other research
Saunders et al. (1988) first showed that autistic children follow word order, not context, to grasp sentences. PROsyntax builds on that clue by drilling word order directly.
Chang et al. (2018) found play-based lessons helped older, minimally verbal kids talk more. PROsyntax now shows that younger preschoolers can leap ahead if you target syntax itself, not just play.
Ganz et al. (2009) used Direct Instruction to teach object labels. PROsyntax keeps the direct style but moves the focus from single words to full sentence frames, giving a bigger language boost.
Why it matters
You can add PROsyntax drills to any preschool day. Short, twice-weekly lessons delivered huge syntax gains without pulling kids out for long periods. If your learners speak in single words or jumbled sentences, try brief, explicit syntax lessons next week.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with development language disorder (DLD) often experience syntactic impairments. It is of the utmost importance to implement evidence-based intervention at the earliest possible stage to mitigate the adverse effects of these difficulties. Internationally, several programs are supported by scientific evidence. In Portugal, there are currently only two intervention programs, one of which is PROsyntax. However, its effectiveness has not yet been established. This study aims to determine the effects of PROsyntax on expressive and receptive syntax in preschool-age children with syntactic impairments diagnosed with DLD or ASD. This study is a nonrandomized controlled trial with a nonprobabilistic convenience sample. Thirty-one children aged between 3 and 6 years were recruited and allocated into an experimental group (EG, intervention group) (n = 14) and a control group (CG, without intervention) (n = 17). A blind pre- (T1) and postintervention (T2) assessment was conducted using two standardized instruments (SIN:TACS for expression and Subtest 3 of Avaliação da Linguagem Oral (ALO) for comprehension). Children in the EG received intervention with PROsyntax, comprising 24 sessions, biweekly, lasting 1 hr each. The intervention was conducted within the school setting by a speech and language therapist. Statistically significant improvements were observed in the EG compared to the CG in both expressive (FTime × Group(1,27) = 293.22; p < .001; ηp2 = 0.92) and receptive (FTime × Group(1,27) = 147.18; p < .001; ηp2 = 0.85) syntax. Large effect sizes were found (SIN:TACS: d = 4.07 (DLD) and d = 11.67 (ASD); ALO: d = 3.29 (DLD) and d = 4.31 (ASD)). Strong correlations between measures were observed at both time points. Postintervention, the CG also received the intervention and showed comparable gains. High satisfaction ratings were reported by both families and early childhood educators. The findings provide preliminary evidence supporting the effects of PROsyntax in improving expressive and receptive syntactic skills in preschool-age children with ASD or DLD. These findings have important implications for clinical practice, suggesting that explicit interventions can yield significant gains in preschool-age children with syntactic impairment. However, the nonrandomized design, small sample size, and absence of long-term follow-up limit the generalizability of results. Further research is needed to confirm these effects and explore differential responses across diagnostic groups.
Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 2025 · doi:10.1177/23969415251350586