Working on Rapid Language Development in Toddlers

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Language Developmental Disorders

Interventions: Behavioral: Enhanced Milieu Teaching

Registration Number: NCT01975922

Lead Sponsor: Vanderbilt University

Brief Summary: The goal of the study is to examine the effects of teaching parents to use language support strategies on language skills in toddlers with language delays. We hypothesize that children whose parents who learn to use language support strategies at home will have greater language skills than those children whose parents do not learn the strategies.

Detailed Description: The goal of the proposed project is to conduct an efficacy trial to determine whether Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) significantly improves language deficits in young children at high risk for persistent language delays. The target population is children ages 24 -36 months who exhibit significant co-occurring delays in productive and receptive language skills, who have cognitive skills within the range of normal development, and who do not have other identified disabilities. An empirically based and manualized language intervention, Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT), implemented by therapists and parents will be compared to community based "business as usual" services in a randomized experiment enrolling 120 children and their parents. Children assigned to the EMT group will receive 24, 1-hour sessions of direct intervention at home that will include teaching their parents to implement EMT procedures across activities. Children will be assessed at 4 time points (before and after intervention, at 6 months and 12 months post-intervention) allowing the description and comparison of individual language growth trajectories over a period of 18 months. In addition, we will examine the relation between language growth and emergent problems in behavior and social skill development to determine whether early language intervention can prevent these difficulties frequently associated with early language delays. Results from this study will determine the efficacy of parent-plus-therapist implemented EMT with a new population of children, provide evidence about the potential for preventing persistent language delays and secondary social effects of early language delays, and expand developmental theory linking persistent language delays to specific risk factors and behavioral outcomes. The results of this study will have specific policy implications related to early identification and the inclusion of young children with language delays as a target population for early intervention.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 97

Inclusion Criteria

Language delay

Exclusion Criteria

Hearing loss
Language other than English as the home language
Additional disabilities (e.g., autism, Down syndrome)

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Enhanced Milieu Teaching	Enhanced Milieu Teaching	Parents receive 28 intervention sessions in which they learn to use language support strategies with their children. Children are assessed at baseline, 4 months after baseline, 10 months after baseline, and 16 months after baseline.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Language Skills at 4 Months After Baseline as Measured by the Pre-school Language Scale - 4th Edition	4 months	Pre-school Language Scale - 4th Edition (a norm-referenced measure of receptive and expressive language) This scale measures the child's expressive and receptive language by going through a standard protocol of items, beginning based on the child's age, requiring a Basal of 3 consecutive correct responses and a Ceiling of 6 consecutive incorrect responses. A higher score is considered better. A standard score of 100 is considered average for the child's age with scores ranging from 50-150.

Secondary Outcome Measures