Parent-led Language Interventions for Young Children with Down Syndrome

1. Lizbeth Finestack (University of Minnesota - Twin Cities)
2. Laurel Bruce (Arizona State University)
3. Sue Buckley
4. Jennifer Davis
5. Linda Eng (Arizona State University)
6. Miriam Kornelis (University of Minnesota - Twin Cities)
7. Susan Loveall (University of Nebraska - Lincoln)
8. Lauren Thompson (Washington State University)
9. Mark VanDam (Washington State University)
10. Beate Peter (Arizona State University)

Correspondence: finestack@umn.edu

Introduction

Currently, there are no evidence-based, sustained interventions that proactively address the speech and language needs of infants with Down syndrome (DS). Additionally, although parent-led interventions for young children have generally shown to be effective, there have been no comprehensive studies of such interventions involving young children with DS. To address this significant gap, we developed and evaluated two,10-month parent-led interventions for parents of young children with DS.

Method

We recruited 20 families to participate in our study who were randomized to one of two interventions. In one of the interventions, parents received individual, weekly sessions; in the other intervention, parents participated in monthly group sessions. In both interventions, parents learned strategies to support their child’s speech and language development. At enrollment, there were 7 boys and 4 girls, average age 5.2 months, who received the individual intervention and 6 boys and 5 girls, average age 6.6 months, who received the group intervention. We evaluated the children’s receptive and expressive language skills pre- and post-intervention using the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventories – 3, a parent inventory or words understood and spoken.

Results

Pre-intervention, one child who received individual sessions had one spoken word and understood eight words; two other children in that group understood three and five words, respectively, but none in their expressive vocabulary. All other children had no words yet in their expressive or receptive vocabularies. Post-intervention four children in each group had spoken words. Thus, both groups demonstrated some intervention benefits.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that early individual and/or group interventions may be beneficial for families with young children with DS. Parents reported that offering a service that is not available to them anywhere else was beneficial. Continued evaluation of early, proactive, parent-led interventions to support the communication skills of young children is warranted.