Complex syntax input in preschool teacher–children play interactions - Complement clauses teacher intervention feasibility study

Oct 15, 2026

This study investigates the feasibility of a vocabulary-based teacher intervention designed to increase preschool teachers’ production of complement clauses during teacher–children play interactions. A multiple baseline across participants design measures the impact of an intervention promoting four complement clause verbs: figure out, notice, remember, and wonder. Visual analysis establishes a functional relation between the intervention and increased production of targeted complement clauses. Encouraging teachers to use CCVs in verbal exchanges is a promising way to strengthen complex syntax input in preschool classrooms.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Complex syntax and preschool grammatical development

Teacher input and child language outcomes

Complement clauses as a targeted structure

Principles supporting language input interventions

Complex syntax input: A single case investigation of increasing preschool teachers’ complement clauses in play interactions Laurel Teller Eastern Illinois University, USA C Melanie Schuele Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, USA Child Language Teaching and Therapy 2024, Vol. 40(2) 139–158 © The Author(s) 2024 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/02656590241231459](DOI: 10.1177/02656590241231459)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/02656590241231459)[journals.sagepub.com/home/clt](journals.sagepub.com/home/clt) Abstract This study investigated the feasibility of a vocabulary-based teacher intervention to increase preschool teachers’ production of complement clauses (e.g. I wonder if we can put the monkey in the tree) in teacher–children play interactions. Using a multiple baseline across participants design we measured the impact of an intervention that promoted preschool teachers’ production of four complement clause verbs (CCVs)—ﬁgure out, notice, remember, wonder. Based on visual analysis we established a functional relation between the teacher intervention and the teachers’ production of the target CCVs produced with a complement clause. Asking teachers to increase their use of CCVs in verbal interactions with children is a promising approach to increase teacher complex syntax input in the preschool classroom. Keywords syntax, preschool, language, intervention, vocabulary I Introduction Complex syntax, an important component of preschool grammatical development, involves the production of dependent clauses in isolation or embedded within or joined to a main clause (e.g. because I’m hungry; I want a snack because I’m hungry; I wonder where I can go; Barako Arndt and Schuele, 2013) . Typical language learners gain substantial complex syntax proﬁciency within the preschool years (Diessel, 2004) . In contrast, children with language learning needs lag age expectations in their complex syntax development (e.g. Schuele and Dykes, 2005; Vasilyeva Corresponding author: Laurel Teller, Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Eastern Illinois University, 600 Lincoln Avenue, Charleston, IL 61920, USA. Email: [lteller@eiu.edu](lteller@eiu.edu) et al., 2008) . Complex syntax is integral to children’s social conversational skills and academic language skills (Barako Arndt and Schuele, 2013; Uccelli et al., 2015) . Thus, opportunities to promote complex syntax development are important in the preschool classroom, particularly for children with language learning needs. The relation between multiple aspects of preschool teacher language input and child language development is well established (e.g. Grifenhagen et al., 2017) . Speciﬁc to complex syntax, Huttenlocher et al. (2002) reported that the proportion of complex sentences in preschool teacher input correlated with preschoolers’ annual growth in complex syntax comprehension (r = 0.51) . Thus, verbal interactions in preschool classrooms provide an important context for promoting children’s complex syntax development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a teacher intervention that aimed to increase one category of complex syntax—complement clauses—in teacher input in small group, teacher–children play interactions in the preschool classroom. Additionally, this study responds to the call to explore approaches to increase preschool teachers’use of language input strategies (Pence et al., 2008) . Complement clauses are known to be more challenging for children with language learning needs than for children with typical language and thus, in this study we evaluated a strategy that may be useful in future child intervention research (e.g. Owen and Leonard, 2006; Schuele and Dykes, 2005; Werfel et al., 2021) . Furthermore, complement clauses are present in multiple preschool-age language activities and thus, are a functional targ

FAQs

What is the main goal of the teacher intervention in this study?

Increase preschool teachers’ production of complement clauses during teacher–children play interactions using a vocabulary-based approach.

Which complement clause verbs (CCVs) are targeted by the intervention?

The intervention promotes four CCVs: figure out, notice, remember, and wonder.

How was the effect of the intervention evaluated?

A multiple baseline across participants design measured intervention impact, and visual analysis established a functional relation between the intervention and teachers’ increased CCV production.

Oct 15, 2026

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