A Parent-Implemented Language Intervention for Late Talkers: An Exploratory Study on Low-Risk Preterm and Full-Term Children

Mariagrazia Zuccarini, Chiara Suttora, Arianna Bello, Arianna Aceti, Luigi Corvaglia, Maria Cristina Caselli, Annalisa Guarini and Alessandra Sansavini
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Mariagrazia Zuccarini: Department of Psychology “Renzo Canestrari”, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
Chiara Suttora: Department of Psychology “Renzo Canestrari”, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
Arianna Bello: Department of Education, Roma Tre University, 00154 Rome, Italy
Arianna Aceti: Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy
Luigi Corvaglia: Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy
Maria Cristina Caselli: Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, 00185 Rome, Italy
Annalisa Guarini: Department of Psychology “Renzo Canestrari”, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
Alessandra Sansavini: Department of Psychology “Renzo Canestrari”, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-20

Abstract: Parent-implemented language interventions have been used for children with expressive language delays, but no study has yet been carried out using this intervention for low-risk preterm children. The current study examined the effect of a parent-implemented dialogic book reading intervention, determining also whether the intervention differently impacted low-risk preterm and full-term children. Fifty 31-month-old late talkers with their parents participated; 27 late talkers constituted the intervention group, and 23 constituted the control group. The overall results indicated that more children in the intervention group showed partial or full recovery of their lexical expressive delay and acquired the ability to produce complete sentences relative to the control group. Concerning full-term late talkers, those in the intervention group showed a higher daily growth rate of total words, nouns, function words, and complete sentences, and more children began to produce complete sentences relative to those in the control group. Concerning low-risk preterm late talkers, children in the intervention group increased their ability to produce complete sentences more than those in the control group. We conclude that a parent-focused intervention may be an effective, ecological, and cost-effective program for improving expressive lexical and syntactic skills of full-term and low-risk preterm late talkers, calling for further studies in late talkers with biological vulnerabilities.

Keywords: parent-implemented intervention; expressive language delay; low-risk preterm children; late talkers; MB-CDI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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