The Effectiveness of Parent-Implemented Evidence-Based Communication Strategies

on a Childs Expressive Language

Kyle Bauer
Kent State University
Early Intervention Certificate Cohort
kbauer9@kent.edu
Methods

Introduction
Communicating using speech is one of the main developmental skills for
young children.
Delays or developmental deficits in speech and expressive language can
negatively affect academic and social outcomes for individuals across their
entire life span.
This research study tested the effects of one parents use of evidence
based, naturalistic communication strategies on her childs expressive
language, in the form of verbal words and sentences.

Participants:

Male toddler (26 months) and mother

Setting: Home based playroom

Design: Single Subject with baseline and intervention conditions

Intervention Parent Strategies (Independent Variable):

Arranging the environment (denying childs access to a desirable toy to promote

verbal request)

This study uses a family-centered approach and evidence based practices

to address the real-life concerns and IFSP goals of a family, in an attempt to
improve a young childs expressive language skills.

Open-ended questions (what is this?, what color is the train?)

Time delay (singing a familiar song such as Row, Row, Row, Your Boat and
pausing for 2 to 5 seconds after row, row, row to promote child to say your boat)

This study takes place in a setting where both the child and the mother
have a significant amount of naturally-occurring daily routines and
interactions.

One of the main goals of the family is for the child to use more intelligible
words and more sentences that are more complex.

Commenting/Labeling: identifying objects the child is playing with (thats a train),

describing them (the train is blue and goes on the track), and narrating what the
child is doing during a play session (I see you put the cow in the barn)
Expansion: Elaborating on a childs vocalization by adding more information or
making it into a sentence (when the child says truck, say yes, thats the red
truck)

Target Behavior (Dependent Variable):

Citation

Roberts, Kaiser,
Wolfe, Bryant, &
Spidalieri, 2014

Purpose

Caregiver use of expansions and

time delays resulted in positive
changes in child language skills

Moore, Barton,
Evaluating effective practices for
& Chironis, 2013 enhancing parents capacity to
increase their toddlers
communication skills

8 families of toddlers (ages

22 to 26 months) with
expressive communication
delays

Parents increased
their responsivity and use of
language-enhancing behaviors
and children improved their
expressive language
skills

Roberts &
Kaiser, 2010

Children between 18 and

60 months of age with
primary and secondary
language impairments

Results indicate that parentimplemented language

interventions have a significant,
positive impact on receptive and
expressive language skills of
children

Alpert & Kaiser,

1992

Evaluate the effects of parentimplemented language

interventions on the language skills
of children

Investigate the extent

34 toddlers (ages 24 to 42
to which a parent-implemented
months) with language
language intervention improves
impairments
language skills in toddlers at risk of
language impairment
Evaluate the acquisition,
generalization, and
maintenance of four milieu
language training
procedures by mothers of
preschoolers with language
impairments

Word: any intelligible verbal elicitation of a single word (ex. truck) or an

approximation of a single word (ex. tuck or chuck) made by the child during a
session.

Sentences: any intelligible verbal elicitation of a multi-word phrase (go train) or

sentence fragment (in the pond) or whole sentence (thats the dog) made by the
child during a session.

Findings

4 toddlers (24 to 42
months) and their
caregivers (3 mothers and
1 grandmother)

Roberts &
Kaiser, 2012

Examine the effectiveness of four

different parent-implemented
language support strategies on a
childs expressive language

Participants

Results indicate that

parent-implemented interventions
may be an effective treatment
for children with expressive and
receptive LI

6 preschool-aged boys and Mothers use of the

their mothers
communication strategies were
associated with an increase in
the children's mean length of
utterance (MLU), requesting, and
total number of words and novel
words produced

Results

Baseline
Words

Baseline
Words

Baseline
Sentences

Baseline
Sentences

Intervention Intervention Intervention Intervention Intervention Intervention Intervention

Words
Words
Words
Words
Sentences
Sentences
Sentences

Childs Communication Samples

Baseline Words
Baseline Sentences
"hat"
"trucks
"I go wee"
"There it is
"train"
"fly"
"The baby go
"I want
"hat"
"I wee"
go wee"
"dad"
"ding"
trucks"
"train"
"The "That's
baby go wee""Go ding"
"moo
"two"
"dad"
"That's
mimi's" "Go train"
"cat"
"apple"
mimi's"
"moo
"Go
with
train" "Hi train"
"duck"
"sit"
"Go
with
"cat"
"Go
dad's"
"papa"
"beep
train"
"duck"
"There
it is
"Go
dad's"
"papa"
"I want trucks"
"trucks
"Go ding"
"fly"
"Go train"
"ding"
"Hi train"
"two"
"apple"
"sit"
"beep

Intervention Words
"house"
"truck"
"pig" "mimi" "mom"
neigh
"sheep"
"go"
"dad"
one
"moo"
"mimi"
"duck" "pond" "dad" two
"neigh" "done "pond"ride
drive
"wolf" walrus "done
puppies
"car" boat walrus
train
woody
balls
boom
no
apple
walk
ride
wag
plane

boat
train
balls
no
walk
wag
neigh
one

Intervention Sentences
two
"Sleep in
"Cars and
go walk
ride
house"
trucks
drive
boat horse say
drive
"No, in where
"The
go"train
walrus ride
thecar
other
puppies
house"
"Mimi's
go bye
no
way
woody
"On the
house"
byes
no help
boom
house"
"Bye train
walrus and
go walk
apple
"In the pond" walrus
sit
puppies
horseboat
say
ride
"Moo and
drive
you go
walrus
plane
wolf in the
where ride
the
puppy
go
byetrain
byes
house"
other
go wee
and
puppies
"Go walk"walrus
no
way
brown hat
puppy ride car
"That's the you
nogohelp
go wee
dog
"There's the
brown hat
cars"
ride car

Procedure:

Baseline sessions: 3 different weekly play sessions between mother and child.

Coaching sessions: after baseline sessions, Early Intervention graduate

student/intern coached mother on the five different communication strategies in two
different one-on-one, face-to-face sessions in the playroom. Strategies were
defined and examples of each were given, to ensure mothers understanding of
each.

Intervention sessions: 2 different weekly 10-minute play sessions between

mother and child, immediately following each coaching session.

Data collection: each baseline and intervention session was recorded and data
was collected on the childs use of both target behaviors, and the mothers use of
each parent strategy.

The results of this study indicate that parent-implemented evidencebased communication strategies in the natural environment can have a
positive impact on a childs expressive language.
The child made significant improvements in his use of both words and
sentences/phrases after coaching sessions took place. The childs
sentence length and complexity also showed improvements during
intervention sessions.
These data also suggest the effectiveness of home-based, one-on-one
parent coaching in early intervention.
The childs improvements in communication also show the possibility of
effectiveness in using a family-centered approach to intervention that
focuses on the goals, priorities, and concerns of the family.
One limitation of this study; however, is that it only involved one parent
and child. Future research could benefit from using a larger number of
participants from a variety of diverse backgrounds.
Future research would also benefit from examining the generalization of
child communication skills and parent strategies in routines that arent
limited to one setting in the familys home.