Effectiveness of group therapy versus individual therapy in acquisition of pre-linguistic skills in children with expressive language disorders

Background: Children with expressive language difficulties may find it difficult to communicate effectively. To encourage the development of prelinguistic skills and improve overall language development, early intervention is essential. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of group therapy as compared to individual therapy in the acquisition of pre-linguistic skills in children with expressive language disorders. Methods: A experimental study was conducted at special education centers of Rawalpindi & Islamabad, from August 2015 to January 2016. A total of n=17 children with expressive language disorders of either gender with ages between 4-7 years were recruited through a nonprobability convenient sampling technique, with Group A (Individual Therapy) including n=7 kids and Group B (Group therapy) n=10 kids. The outcome measures were Eye contact, attention span, turn-taking, and imitation skills, noted before therapy and after completing 20 sessions post-therapy (after 7 weeks). Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 20. An Independent t-test was utilized to see any difference between groups. Results: The study included 10(58.82%) males and 7(41.18%) females with most 9(52.94%) being 6 to 7 years of age. Post therapy results revealed significantly better results for group therapy versus individual therapy (11.0±1.24 vs 8.28±1.11) for eye-contact (p=0.000); (11.0±0.94 vs 7.8±1.34) attention span (p=0.000); (11.4±0.69 vs 8.0±0.81) turn taking (p=0.000); and (10.6±1.34 vs 8.4±0.97) for imitation skills (p=002). Conclusion: The study concludes that group therapy is significantly more effective than individual therapy for improving pre-linguistic skills including eye contact, attention span, turn-taking, and imitation skills in 4 to 7 years old kids with expressive language disorders. Keywords: Language, Expressive language disorder, Pre-linguistic skills, Group therapy, Individual therapy