Parent-child interaction in motor speech therapy

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Developmental Psychology
• Pediatric Rehabilitation

Background:

• Parent-child interaction quality is crucial for speech and language development.
• Parent-centered therapy models offer cost-effective service delivery but can be challenging for specialized interventions.
• Children with speech sound disorders often benefit from targeted motor speech interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability and sensitivity of a modified Parent-Child Interaction Observation scale (PCIOs).
• To assess the scale's utility in monitoring parent-child interactions within a home-training program for motor speech intervention.
• To determine the impact of intervention intensity on parent-child interaction quality.

Main Methods:

• Eighty-four preschool children with speech sound disorders received high- (2x/week) or low-intensity (1x/week) motor speech intervention for 10 weeks.
• Clinicians used the PCIOs at baseline, midpoint, and end of treatment.
• Inter-rater reliability was assessed via Kappa scores on video recordings; sensitivity was evaluated using Friedman and Wilcoxon tests.

Main Results:

• The PCIOs demonstrated fair-to-good inter-rater reliability (Kappa = 0.33-0.64) using video scoring.
• Child-related interaction items were more sensitive to treatment intensity differences than parent-related items.
• Higher intensity intervention positively influenced parent skill acquisition and child behaviors.

Conclusions:

• The adapted PCIOs is a reliable and sensitive tool for assessing parent-child interactions in motor speech intervention.
• High-intensity motor speech therapy (2x/week) led to greater improvements in parent-child interactions compared to low-intensity therapy (1x/week).
• Parents may require more than five sessions to learn observational skills, and children may need over 10 sessions to adapt to structured play settings.