Play Boot Camp: A Transdisciplinary Pilot Study of Parent Training for Infants with Down Syndrome
- Amanda DiGangi (Arizona State University)
- Jennifer Davis (Arizona State University)
- Beate Peter (Arizona State University)
- Kelsey Lucca (Arizona State University)
- Kamelia Slankard (Arizona State University)
- Amy Armstrong-Heimsoth (Northern Arizona University)
- Linda Eng (Arizona State University)
- Sue Buckley (Down Syndrome Education International)
Correspondence: eboutot@asu.edu
Play Boot Camp: A Transdisciplinary Pilot Study of Parent Training for Infants with Down Syndrome builds on the promising outcomes of Babble Boot Camp (BBC), the first proactive, longitudinal speech–language intervention designed for infants at high risk for communication delays. Children with Down syndrome (DS) experience predictable and persistent difficulties in speech, language, and cognition, as well as play. BBC demonstrated that caregivers of infants with DS (ages 4–16 months) can effectively implement evidence-based intervention strategies via telehealth to increase vocalizations, babble complexity, early lexical development, and vocabulary growth, with families reporting high levels of feasibility and acceptability. Notably, intervention gains were moderated by infants’ medical complexity and by caregiver health and stress, highlighting the need for earlier, more comprehensive, and developmentally integrated intervention approaches.
Play Boot Camp extends this paradigm by targeting a second pivotal developmental domain: early play behaviors, including reaching, grasping, object exploration, cause-and-effect play, and functional play. These behaviors are characteristically delayed in DS due to hypotonia and generalized motor delays. and are strongly associated with subsequent language, cognitive, and social development. Despite calls for intervention in this domain (Bauer & Jones, 2014), no empirically validated parent-implemented play-based interventions for infants with DS currently exist. In this pilot study, 6 caregivers of infants with DS (4–8 months at the start of the study) participated in weekly telehealth parent training for 10 months, to implement a structured, behaviorally grounded Play Boot Camp protocol designed to increase both the frequency and quality of infants’ play behaviors. Play is a central mechanism through which infants learn to explore, communicate, problem-solve, and socially engage with others. The Play Boot Camp intervention therefore targets the acquisition of play skills themselves while simultaneously using play as the primary context for strengthening early communication, motor, and cognitive development.
The intervention was delivered using a transdisciplinary model in which a specialist pediatric speech–language pathologist and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst with expertise in infant play and play-based applied behavior analysis jointly conducted caregiver coaching sessions. This innovative integrated approach was designed to enhance the depth and coherence of parent training while maximizing developmental gains across both play and early communication domains.
Results Outcomes will be discussed in terms of feasibility, caregiver feedback, and implementation lessons, with the goal of informing refinement of the intervention to guide future large-scale trials to evaluate efficacy and scalability.
