Murphy and Evans (2019) studied the effects of phonological awareness treatment in a group of children with Down syndrome compared to a control. This design is a

• A. Meta-analysis
• B. Cohort study
• C. Case control study
• D. Systematic literature review

Answer: (B)

How groups are formed and followed over time to compare outcomes is what this question hinges on. When researchers take a group that receives a treatment and compare it to a similar group that does not, tracking outcomes as time progresses, that setup is a cohort design. Here, a group of children with Down syndrome received phonological awareness treatment and was compared to a control group not receiving the treatment, which fits the cohort approach. A randomized controlled trial would require random assignment to treatment and control, which isn’t specified. A case-control study starts with an outcome and looks back for exposures, not this forward-following comparison. Meta-analyses and systematic reviews synthesize findings across studies rather than evaluating a single treated-versus-control group.