2-088 - Models for Increasing the Capacity of Parents to Change the Trajectory of Children’s Language Outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The communication and language learning outcomes of infants and young children vary according to the amount and quality of talk they are exposed to by parents and caregivers. When exposed to more language, children have opportunities to learn vocabulary and to practice communication, whereas deficits in exposure or gaps in experience with words may have long-lasting and serious implications. Years of research have confirmed that communication problems originating in early childhood may have a cumulative effect throughout development, contributing to later learning disabilities, reading deficits, behavior disorders, school failure, delinquency, and constraints on future employment. Children who do not acquire effective communication skills can experience undue dependency and social isolation. The prevalence of communication problems can result in significant personal and national cost. For young children with disabilities and those growing up in poverty, these outcomes may be more pronounced. Three models for increasing young children’s exposure to language are described. Each model employed practices for increasing the language interactions of parents, caregivers and intervention providers using evidence-based strategies including, naturalistic communication and language interventions, coaching, and technology innovations to increase levels and quality of adult talk with children who have developmental disabilities, language delays and who are deaf/hard of hearing. Common across the models was the use of data as a mechanism for providing feedback to parents and service providers about intervention implementation. Results indicate that the models were successful in increasing adults’ language input and children’s language outcomes were associated with parent’s intervention use.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Disabilities

Chair

• Dale Walker, Univ of KS

Discussant

• Kathryn A Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University

Individual Presentations

• Partnerships to Use Strategies that Promote the Communication and Language of Infants and Toddlers with Special Needs - Presenting Author: Dale Walker, Univ of KS; Kathryn Bigelow, Juniper Gardens Children's Project; Jane Atwater, Univ of Kansas; Constance Beecher, Iowa State University

• The Effects of Parent-implemented Communication Intervention on Toddlers with Receptive and Expressive Language Delays - Presenting Author: Ann P Kaiser, Vanderbilt University; Megan Y. Roberts, Northwestern University

• Project ASPIRE: A parent-directed intervention for underserved children who are deaf or hard of hearing - Presenting Author: Dana Suskind, University of Chicago; Eileen Graf, The University of Chicago Medicine; Kristin R. Leffel, The University of Chicago Medicine; Elizabeth Suskind, The University of Chicago Medicine; Marc W Hernandez, NORC