Parent-implemented augmented communication intervention and young children with Down syndrome: an exploratory report
Adding an SGD to parent coaching gives toddlers with Down syndrome more useful words without slowing their speech.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Romski et al. (2023) asked parents of toddlers and preschoolers with Down syndrome to add a speech-generating device (SGD) to daily play and routines.
Half the families got extra coaching on how to model both the device and spoken words. The other half kept talking without the gadget.
The team tracked how many different words each child used after several months.
What they found
Kids who got the device plus coaching used more new, useful words than kids who only heard spoken language.
Spoken words still grew in both groups — the device did not slow talking.
Parents kept using the strategies at home after the study ended.
How this fits with other research
Koenen et al. (2016) saw the same boost when minimally verbal preschoolers with autism got parent coaching plus SGD. Both studies show the combo works across diagnoses.
Bishop et al. (2020) used echoic prompts through an SGD to spark vocal speech in kids with autism. Romski’s team embedded similar prompts inside parent play, showing the tactic travels from lab to living room.
Kaneda et al. (2025) later turned SGD sound off to push children with autism to speak first. Romski kept sound on and still saw spoken growth, hinting that different settings may need different SGD rules.
Why it matters
If you coach families of young children with Down syndrome, hand them an SGD and show them how to hit the button while they talk. The child gains functional words now, and spoken language keeps growing. Start early, stay playful, and track both device use and new spoken words each week.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Young children with Down syndrome (DS) present with speech and language impairments very early in childhood. Historically, early language intervention for children with DS included manual signs, though recently there has been an interest in the use of speech-generating devices (SGDs). This paper examines the language and communication performance of young children with DS who participated in parent-implemented communication interventions that included SGDs. Specifically, we compared the functional vocabulary usage and communication interaction skills of children with DS who received augmented communication interventions (AC) that included an SGD with those children with DS who received spoken communication intervention (SC). Twenty-nine children with DS participated in this secondary data analysis. These children were part of one of two longitudinal RCT studies investigating the effectiveness of parent-implemented augmented communication interventions in a larger sample of 109 children with severe communication and language impairments. There were significant differences between children with DS in the AC and SC groups in terms of the number and proportion of functional vocabulary targets used and the total vocabulary targets provided during the intervention at sessions 18 (lab)and 24 (home). Overall, the AC interventions provided the children with a way to communicate via an SGD with visual-graphic symbols and speech output, while the children in the SC intervention were focused on producing spoken words. The AC interventions did not hinder the children’s spoken vocabulary development. Augmented communication intervention can facilitate the communication abilities of young children with DS as they are emerging spoken communicators.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2023 · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1168599