Babble Boot Camp for infants with Down syndrome
This project is exploring the effectiveness of a proactive, systematic, and longitudinal speech and language, parent-led intervention supported by weekly speech therapy delivered via telepractice.
Most children with Down syndrome experience significant delays in developing spoken language. An increasing amount of research indicates that the foundations for spoken language are being laid from the first year of life, and are influenced by the quality and quantity of language that infants and young children experience. The implications of these findings are that speech and language therapy services should reach families early and show them how to support their infants' progress.
Babble Boot Camp[1] is an intervention that is designed to provide this support via weekly telepractice sessions to families. Originally evaluated with children with classic galactosemia, we are now trialling Babble Boot Camp with infants with Down syndrome.
The first pilot recruited 10 families to evaluate the feasibility of offering the Babble Boot Camp intervention with two groups of 5 infants (age 4-5 months or 10-16 months at the start). The children received 10 months of weekly Babble Boot Camp sessions. The results are promising in terms of parent feedback on acceptability and initial data on children's progress.
The team have now received a grant from ASHFoundation and this is funding a small randomised controlled trial comparing the intensive Babble Boot Camp intervention with monthly parent information sessions. This study will be recruiting in spring 2024.
Partners
- Arizona State University, USA
- University of Minnesota, USA
- University of Nebraska, USA
- Washington State University, USA
- University of Washington, USA
- University of Portsmouth, UK
- Down Syndrome Education International, UK
Funding
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
- ASHFoundation, Rockville, MD, USA
- Down Syndrome Education International, Cumbria, UK
References
Publications
- Peter, B., Potter, N., VanDam, M., Thompson, L., Finestack, L., Loveall, S., Davis, J., Scherer, N., Bruce, L., Eng, L., Stoel-Gammon, C. & Buckley, S. (2024) A proactive speech and language intervention: Babble Boot Camp for infants with Down syndrome. Paper at 56th Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Kansas, MO, USA, 17-19 April 2024.
- Peter, B., Potter, N., VanDam, M., Thompson, L., Finestack, L., Loveall, S., Davis, J., Scherer, N., Bruce, L., Eng, L., Stoel-Gammon, C. & Buckley, S. (2024) Babble Boot Camp: A proactive speech and language intervention. Paper at the Down Syndrome Research Forum, 25-26 April, 2024.
