Training Caregivers to Teach Vocabulary to Children With Language Impairment

Caregiver Spanish Intervention Training for Children With Developmental Language Disorder

The purpose of this study is to determine whether Spanish-speaking caregivers can learn to teach science vocabulary to their children with the use and educational app and a short training video with target words. The children will take language, speech, and hearing tests, as well as science and vocabulary pretests with a speech-language pathologist. You will be asked to answer some questions about your language use in the house and other places. If you and your child qualify for the study, the researcher will randomly place you a group to 1) use the app, or 2) use books. Since you are chosen at random, there is no way of knowing which group you and your child will be in before you start. Participants will take part in an 11-week study (3 weeks of testing at the beginning, middle, and end of study, and 8 weeks of intervention). The testing will be conducted in a place that is comfortable for your child (home, school, university clinic). The intervention can be done at home (researchers will not be present for this part of the study, but we will be available to support you or answer questions). We want you to play (group 1) or read (group 2) with your child two times a week (~30 minutes) and send the audio recording of your interaction to our researchers.

Inclusion Criteria:

Children:

• age (4-6) and not have completed kindergarten prior to pretesting
• pass a hearing screening to rule out hearing loss as a cause for language impairment
• speak Spanish at least 50% of their day reported in BIOS
• have a confirmed diagnosis of DLD via the BESA
• not have a diagnosis of intellectual disability via Matrices subtest or social communication disorder via Social Communication Questionnaire
• be able to speak with at least 3-word utterances

Caregivers:

• have access to a smart phone
• spend time with the child participant daily
• speak fluent Spanish

Exclusion Criteria:

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