Oral language skills are critical for psychosocial development and children with language difficulties are more likely than peers to experience behavioral problems. This study investigated the effects of an oral language intervention on behavioral adjustment. We collected teacher ratings of behavioral adjustment for 1173 children taking part in a cluster randomized trial of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) program in 193 primary schools. Ratings were collected before and immediately after the 20-week intervention. Children receiving the language program showed significantly greater improvements than the untreated control group on a latent variable reflecting behavioral adjustment (d = 0.23). However, the improvements in behavioral adjustment for children receiving language intervention were not mediated by improvements in language. We suggest that the improvements in behavioral adjustment are a consequence of the small group and individual teaching sessions in the language intervention program, which emphasizes the need to pay attention and regulate behavior. This emphasis appears to produce generalized improvements in children's behavior regulation outside of the targeted language teaching sessions.

口语技能对心理社会发展至关重要，有语言障碍的儿童比同龄人更容易出现行为问题。本研究调查了口语干预对行为调整的影响。我们收集了 1173 名儿童的行为调整教师评分，这些儿童参加了 193 所小学的纳菲尔德早期语言干预 (NELI) 计划的集群随机试验。在 20 周干预之前和之后立即收集评级。接受语言课程的儿童在反映行为调整的潜变量（d = 0.23)。然而，接受语言干预的儿童行为调整的改善并不是由语言的改善所介导的。我们认为，行为调整的改善是语言干预计划中小组和个人教学课程的结果，该课程强调需要注意和规范行为。这种强调似乎在目标语言教学课程之外对儿童的行为调节产生了普遍的改善。