Peter Beate, Finestack Lizbeth, Loveall Susan, Thompson Lauren, Bruce Laurel, Scherer Nancy, Stoel-Gammon Carol, Davis Jennifer, Potter Nancy, VanDam Mark, Eng Linda, Buckley Sue
College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Phoenix.
Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2025 May 6;34(3):1041-1057. doi: 10.1044/2024_AJSLP-24-00271. Epub 2025 Mar 28.
Down syndrome (DS) is associated with lifelong difficulties with verbal communication, beginning in infancy when vocalizations are sparse and first words emerge late. Because DS is diagnosed at or even before birth, these difficulties can be anticipated, yet there have been limited developments of systematic, proactive interventions. The purpose of the pilot study described here was to investigate feasibility and potential benefits of such an intervention toward a fully powered clinical trial.
We piloted Babble Boot Camp (BBC), a proactive, parent-led speech and language intervention, with 10 children with DS ages 4-16 months. Each family participated in weekly sessions via telehealth for 10 months. A pediatric speech-language pathologist coached parents to implement daily routines and activities at home, designed to foster child target behaviors and skills (e.g., increased vocalization rates, babble complexity, word productions) toward building resilience against anticipated challenges. Parents provided daylong audio recordings and questionnaire data at regular intervals.
Parent participation and compliance metrics in the intervention were high. All rated the intervention as acceptable, convenient, and helpful, whereas three sets of parents found aspects of the data collection time consuming. Children's linguistic environments resembled those of typical controls in terms of child utterance rates, adult word counts, and conversational turns. Babble complexity and receptive and expressive vocabularies increased over time. First words emerged earlier than expected.
High feasibility metrics and suggestive benefits motivate a larger study to determine more specifically how the various BBC components can improve long-term outcomes for children with DS.
唐氏综合征（DS）与终身言语交流困难相关，这种困难始于婴儿期，此时发声稀少且首次单词出现较晚。由于DS在出生时甚至出生前就被诊断出来，这些困难是可以预见的，但系统性、前瞻性干预措施的发展却很有限。本文所述试点研究的目的是调查这种干预措施在全面开展的临床试验中的可行性和潜在益处。
我们对10名年龄在4至16个月的唐氏综合征儿童进行了“牙牙学语训练营”（BBC）试点，这是一项由家长主导的前瞻性言语和语言干预。每个家庭通过远程医疗参加了为期10个月的每周课程。一名儿科言语语言病理学家指导家长在家中实施日常活动和安排，旨在培养儿童的目标行为和技能（例如，提高发声频率、牙牙学语的复杂性、单词产出），以增强应对预期挑战的能力。家长定期提供一整天的音频记录和问卷数据。
干预中家长的参与度和依从性指标很高。所有人都认为该干预是可接受的、方便的且有帮助的，而有三组家长觉得数据收集的某些方面很耗时。在儿童发声率、成人单词计数和对话轮次方面，儿童的语言环境与典型对照组相似。牙牙学语的复杂性以及接受性和表达性词汇量随时间增加。首个单词出现的时间比预期更早。
高可行性指标和潜在益处促使开展更大规模的研究，以更具体地确定BBC的各个组成部分如何改善唐氏综合征儿童的长期预后。
