Speech and Hearing Science, College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Tempe.
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Saint Louis University, MO.
Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2021 Nov 4;30(6):2616-2634. doi: 10.1044/2021_AJSLP-21-00098. Epub 2021 Oct 19.
Purpose Babble Boot Camp (BBC) is a package of proactive activities and routines designed to prevent speech and language disorders in infants at predictable risk. It is implemented via parent training and currently undergoing clinical trial in children with a newborn diagnosis of classic galactosemia (CG), a metabolic disease with high risk of speech and language disorders. The purpose of this study is to provide updates to a previous pilot study and to present the first set of post-intervention results. Method The intervention and data collection occurred during child ages < 6-24 months, with follow-up assessments of speech and language at ages 2.5 and 3.5 years. Treatment targets included earliest vocalization rates, babble complexity, speech production accuracy, and vocabulary and syntactic growth. The oldest 15 children with CG (including three untreated controls) completed the first set of follow-up assessments. Aggregate data up to 10 months were available for 17 treated children with CG, six untreated children with CG, and six typical controls. Results At ages 7-9 months, babbling complexity, as measured with mean babbling level, was higher in the treated children with CG than in the untreated children with CG and the typical controls. Prior to 24 months of age, the treated children with CG had greater expressive but not receptive vocabulary sizes than an untreated control. Follow-up testing showed typical language scores for all 12 treated children with CG and typical articulation scores for 11 of these, whereas one of three untreated children with CG had low articulation and expressive language scores. Conclusions The BBC appears to be a viable intervention to support the speech and expressive language development of children with GC. Future studies will evaluate the relative contributions of the earliest and later BBC components to outcomes.
目的
婴儿言语启动训练营（Babble Boot Camp，BBC）是一套旨在预防有明确风险的婴儿言语和语言障碍的积极活动和常规方案。它通过家长培训来实施，目前正在患有经典半乳糖血症（galactosemia，CG）的新生儿的儿童中进行临床试验，这种代谢疾病有很高的言语和语言障碍风险。本研究的目的是为之前的一项试点研究提供最新进展，并展示第一组干预后结果。
方法
干预和数据收集发生在儿童 < 6-24 月龄期间，2.5 和 3.5 岁时进行言语和语言的随访评估。治疗目标包括最早发声率、咿呀学语声复杂性、言语产生准确性、词汇和句法增长。15 名患有 CG 的最年长儿童（包括 3 名未治疗对照者）完成了第一组随访评估。17 名接受治疗的 CG 儿童、6 名未治疗的 CG 儿童和 6 名典型对照组儿童的聚合数据可获得 10 个月的结果。
结果
在 7-9 月龄时，用平均咿呀声水平衡量的 CG 治疗儿童的咿呀声复杂性高于 CG 未治疗儿童和典型对照组。在 24 月龄之前，CG 治疗儿童的表达性词汇量大于未治疗对照组，但接受性词汇量则不然。随访测试显示 12 名接受治疗的 CG 儿童中有 11 名具有典型语言评分和典型发音评分，而 3 名未治疗的 CG 儿童中有 1 名具有较低的发音和表达性语言评分。
结论
BBC 似乎是一种可行的干预措施，可以支持 CG 儿童的言语和表达性语言发展。未来的研究将评估 BBC 最早和最晚组成部分对结果的相对贡献。
