Abstract

Background: Speech language delay is a common developmental problem among Egyptian children. There is paucity of reliable data on parent involvement interventions in speech language problems and of communication disorders in Egypt.

Objective: We evaluated the effect of parent involvement in language development intervention programmes on a population of late talking toddlers recruited from local kindergarten schools in Alexandria, Egypt, using interaction-promoting strategies which encourage children to take turns in a conversation, ask questions and wait for a response.

Methods: Seventy-nine mother-child pairs were randomly assigned into an experimental group where a validated Language Development Survey (LDS) was administered while study mothers assigned to control arm had routine care according to kindergartens policy in Egypt. Pre-and post-intervention assessments were conducted on all domains of the tool.

Results: Approximately one third (30.9%) of the study children in the experimental group had severe language delay pre-intervention and this decreased to 16.2% of children post-intervention. On the other hand, less than one quarter (18.2%) of the study children in the control group had severe language delay pre-intervention, this increased to about half (54.5%) of children post-intervention (p=<0.043).This showed that significant expressive language gains can be made by pre-school language-delayed children, through group parental-based language intervention.

Conclusion: Findings of this study suggest that parent involvement had positive outcomes in terms of language development in their late-talking toddlers. The study supports the concept of parent involvement as a viable model of language intervention for promoting short-term developmental progress in latetalking toddlers.

Keywords: Speech Therapy; Paediatric; Nursing; Parent Involvement; Language Delay