Parent-mediated interventions for promoting communication and language development in young children with Down syndrome.

Background: Communication and language development are areas of particular weakness for young children with Down syndrome. Caregivers' interaction with children influences language development, so many early interventions involve training parents how best to respond to their children and provide appropriate language stimulation. Thus, these interventions are mediated through parents, who in turn are trained and coached in the implementation of interventions by clinicians.

The Home Literacy Environment of Preschool-Age Children with Autism or Down Syndrome.

Aims: This exploratory study investigated if there were differences in the home literacy environment of preschool children on the autism spectrum and preschool children with Down syndrome to determine if the home literacy environment may potentially be associated with strengths or weaknesses in children's social communication skills.

Methods: A total of 111 parents of preschoolers with identified disabilities completed a home literacy questionnaire.

Results: Results indicated that both groups of parents started reading to their children at an early age and owned at least 25 children's books.

Personal narrative skills of school-aged children with Down syndrome.

Background: Personal narratives are descriptions of past events experienced by the speaker and are one of the most commonly found forms of narration in children. The ability to tell personal narratives is considered critical for socio-emotional wellbeing and academic performance.

Aims: This study investigated the personal narrative skills of 25 children with Down syndrome (age 5;11-13;1 years) who attended predominantly mainstream primary schools in New Zealand and were classified as beginning readers.

Integrated speech and phonological awareness intervention for pre-school children with Down syndrome.

Background: Children with Down syndrome experience difficulty with both spoken and written language acquisition, however controlled intervention studies to improve these difficulties are rare and have typically focused on improving one language domain.

Aims: To investigate the effectiveness of an integrated intervention approach on the speech, letter knowledge, and phonological awareness development of ten pre-school children with Down syndrome aged between 4;4 and 5;5.

Methods & Procedures: A multiple single-subject design was used to evaluate treatment effectiveness.