Essay Sample on Parent Intervention Program

Introduction

The development of communication and language skills is one of the essential steps in child development, and thus it is the key to the child learning social skills (Adamson et al., 2020). Primary care providers may note that some infants or preschool-aged children whose expressive language development and communication skills may delay (Adamson et al., 2020). Toddlers who develop expressive language delay tend to gain expressive language mostly after preschool, while others may experience a persistent delay in acquiring persistent language (Adamson et al., 2020). Early evaluations can help identify and correct expressive language delay among the toddlers, which may be corrected through the two to talk parent intervention program.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Research Objectives

The research aims to show how the Two to Talk Parent intervention program can effectively develop communication and interaction skills among toddlers who have developed late talking.

The research reveals how the OWL strategy can be an essential tool in developing the child's language and how the parents can effectively use it to understand their children.

Literature Review

It Takes Two to Talk program was first developed by an expert on speech-language pathologists who researched to ensure that it is efficient (Crais & Woods, 2016). The evidence-based program, over the past decades, in the clinical settings have proved to have positive effects in communication development among young children (Crais & Woods, 2016). The program is made up of several strategies, but mainly the Owling strategy, which aids in making parents the best tutors to make their parents develop speech-language.

Two to Talk Parent Intervention Program

The Two to Talk parent intervention program was invented, especially for parents who have young children within five years of age bracket who have language delays (Crais & Woods, 2016). The intervention program is held in a small personalized group setting where the parents are mentored and taught how to learn practical strategies that they can use to help their children learn the language naturally daily while they are together (Lane & Brown, 2016). However, the program can be practiced online through what is referred to as the telepractice.

How Parents Can Teach the Toddlers

The program teaches the parents how best they can become their children's language teacher in that it shows the parents how to do the following; recognize the child's stage and style of communication in which a parent will know the next steps to undertake (Lane & Brown, 2016). The program will also enable the parent to identify what motivates the child to interact with the parent, and thus through it, the parent can use it as a baseline to start the interactions. It will also help the parent adjust the current routines to help the child turn and keep the interactions alive (Lane & Brown, 2016). The two to talk intervention program will allow the parent to follow the child's lead to build the child's confidence and help them communicate. With the program, it will enable the parent to add language to interactions with the child. It will help the child understand the language, which may seem native to the child, and the child will use the language when one is ready (Lane & Brown, 2016). The program will enable the parent to adjust the way one plays with the child and how one reads the books to help the child learn the new language.

OWL Strategy

The OWL strategy can be beneficial to the parents since they can easily use the strategy to help them develop the right communication and interaction skills (Paavola-Ruotsalainen et al., 2017). Through the OWL strategy, the parent will allow the child to open up and start communicating.

Observe

In this step, the parent will have to observe the child's body language, expression, gestures, and facial expressions since it is hard for the parent to know what is on the child's mind skills (Paavola-Ruotsalainen et al., 2017). By understanding the body language, the parent will learn a lot about what the child is interested in, and by discovering what the child is interested in, it will help the parent share the moment with the child and thus use it to communicate with the child.

Wait

Waiting, a strategy of talking to talk is the most potent time since it gives the parent the chance to observe what interests the child's skills (Paavola-Ruotsalainen et al., 2017). The step also gives the child the chance to interact or respond to what the parent has said (Rocha et al., 2020). The wait step is made up of the following components; stop talking, leaning forward, and looking at the toddler. The child may have been used to everyone else in their home doing the communicating (Rocha et al., 2020). With the waiting component, waiting will help send the child that the parent is waiting for the child's response. After the child communicates, the parent needs to interact with the child immediately. The wait step requires the parent to be more patient with the child, and one can do this by slowly counting while waiting for the child to respond (Rocha et al., 2020). This step aims to make the child understand the parent is interested in one and that the parent is waiting for the child to interact.

Listen

In the listening step, it entails paying attention to the child's words and their sounds. In this step, the parent is urged not to interrupt the child after discovering what the child is trying to say. Paying keen attention and listening to the child speak will help the child understand that one is essential to the parent. When the parent finds difficulty understanding what the child is trying to say, one may mimic the child's sounds and actions and wait to see if the child will make the message clearer. This step will urge the parent to try the best to understand what the toddler is trying to say since it will show the child that the parent minds about one.

Significance of the Study

Delay in communication development among children aged between five years has been considered a significant problem (Rose et al., 2019). However, the Two to Talk Parent Intervention Program, which is equipped with the OWL strategy which is made up of observe, wait and listen to steps, will be useful since it will provide parents with the right procedures that they need to undertake in order to develop their child's communication and interaction skills virtually (Rose et al., 2019). The OWL strategy will be essentials since it will allow further improvement of the program and how it can be enhanced to strengthen the bond between the child and the parent, thus making the program more effective.

General Design

The Two to Talk Parent Intervention Program was conducted at the Department of Speech Therapy at Hawkins General Hospital (Rose et al., 2019). It was made up of eight-hour parent training sessions and a two-hour home visit. An assessment was conducted on language ability using the Communicative Development Inventory, which comprises words, gestures, and sentences (Rose et al., 2019). The CDIs aim to determine the child's formation of words, gestures, and also sentences.

Participants

The participants in this research were made up of two parents and four children. Simultaneously, both of the children were twins who were aged between 26-41 months (Rose et al., 2019). The language to be used in this research will be mainly English and Spanish language. Each parent was given a questionnaire on parents and children's perceptions under the Communicative Development Inventory, and they were asked to evaluate if any change was noted after they completed the therapy (Adamson et al., 2020). Written consent was obtained from the parents before they were enrolled in the program.

Results

Results obtained were that after the post-training, an improvement was noted in all the children's expressive vocabulary in the study (Adamson et al., 2020). In the analysis of the post-program survey, it was noted that the parents achieved a pass rate in their scores about mentoring the children on the Two to Talk Parent Intervention Program (Crais & Woods, 2016). Also, positive feedback from the parent was noted, and also the parent's perceptions towards the program were noted since they were able to develop new abilities to improve their children's speech and language skills.

Conclusion

The research paper was designed to evaluate the Two to Talk Parent Intervention Program's effectiveness and how best it can be used to develop communication patterns among children with delayed speech problems. The participants were two parents with four children, a survey was conducted, and it proved that the program was effective in developing and improving communication and interaction patterns among toddlers with delayed speech. The study helped fill the gap in which many parents do not know the right step to help their children with delayed speech problems.

References

Adamson, L. B., Kaiser, A. P., Tamis-LaMonda, C. S., Owen, M. T., & Dimitrova, N. (2020). The developmental landscape of early parent-focused language intervention. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 50, 59-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.11.005

Crais, E. R., & Woods, J. (2016). The role of speech-language pathologists in providing early childhood special education. Handbook of Early Childhood Special Education, 363-383.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28492-7_19

Lane, J. D., & Brown, J. A. (2016). Promoting communication development in young children with or at risk for disabilities. Handbook of Early Childhood Special Education, 199-224.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28492-7_12

PAAVOLA-RUOTSALAINEN, L., LEHTOSAARI, J., PALOMÄKI, J., & TERVO, I. (2017). Maternal verbal responsiveness and directiveness: Consistency, stability, and relations to child early linguistic development. Journal of Child Language, 45(2), 319-339.
https://doi.org/10.1017/s030500091700023x

Rocha, J. A., Oliveira Santos, C., Peixoto, V., Maia, F., & Gama Alegria, R. (2020). Speech language pathology clinical education: Perceptions and experiences of clinical educators and students. Revista de Investigación en Logopedia, 10(2), 123-133.