ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Parent based language intervention for 2-year-old children with specific expressive language delay: a randomised controlled trial

A Buschmann¹, B Jooss¹, A Rupp², F Feldhusen³, J Pietz¹, H Philippi¹

¹ Department of Paediatric Neurology, Children’s Hospital, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
² Section of Biomagnetism, Department of Neurology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
³ Department of Paedaudiology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Anke Buschmann, Department of Paediatric Neurology, Children’s Hospital, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 150, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany; anke.buschmann{at}med.uni-heidelberg.de

Objective: The aim of this randomised controlled trial was to evaluate the effectiveness of a short, highly structured parent based language intervention group programme for 2-year-old children with specific expressive language delay (SELD, without deficits in receptive language).

Methods: 61 children with SELD (mean age 24.7 months, SD 0.9) were selected between October 2003 and February 2006 during routine developmental check-ups in general paediatric practices, using a German parent-report screening questionnaire (adapted from the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories). Standardised instruments were used to assess the language and non-verbal cognitive abilities of these children and of 36 other children with normal language development (reference group; mean age 24.6 months, SD 0.8). 58 children with SELD were sequentially randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 29) or a 12-month waiting group (n = 29). In the intervention group, mothers participated in the 3-month Heidelberg Parent-based Language Intervention (HPLI). All children were reassessed 6 and 12 months after pretest. Assessors were blind to allocation and previous results.

Results: 47 children were included in the analysis. At the age of 3 years, 75% of the children in the intervention group showed normal expressive language abilities in contrast to 44% in the waiting group. Only 8% of the children in the intervention group versus 26% in the waiting group met the criteria for specific language impairment (t score 35).

Conclusions: By applying the short, highly structured HPLI in children with SELD, the rate of treatment for language impairment at the age of 3 years can be significantly reduced.

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