Comparison of intervention providers for late-talking toddlers

What is it about?

There are several people who could serve as an intervention provider when treating the communication skills of late talkers. Mainly, these toddlers are either treated directly by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) or by a parent or caregiver receiving coaching and feedback from an SLP. Although researchers have noted the effectiveness of parent-implemented interventions for some clinical populations, few have specifically addressed late talkers. In the present study, the investigators systematically reviewed the exiting research literature and found that treatment provided by either parents or clinicians can improve late talkers’ communication skills and parent-implemented may be more effective, but there are limits to our current knowledge base on this issue.

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Why is it important?

This is an important issue because commonly-used early childhood home-based intervention models rely heavily on parent-implemented service delivery, but we do not know how effective this approach really is across many populations of young children. Our review provides detailed information to direct practicing clinicians and researchers interested in this area of the field.