It Takes Two To Talk: A Practical Guide For Parents of Children With Language Delays

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Eight two and a half hour sessions for a small group of parents, led by the Hanen speech-language pathologist Later on, the Discoverer begins to explore his world more. He reaches for objects or people, or moves toward them. Sometimes, parents have to pay close attention to learn what a Discoverer is interested in. An estimated 1 in 12 children in Canada has a speech delay or language delay. As infants, these children may not babble as much as other babies or use the same number and variety of sounds. As toddlers and preschoolers, these children may be slower to use words, and may take longer to speak in full sentences. DeVeney, S.L.; Hagaman, J.L.; Bjornsen, A.L. Parent-Implemented Versus Clinician-Directed Interventions for Late-Talking Toddlers: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Commun. Disord. Q. 2017, 39, 293–302. [ Google Scholar] [ CrossRef] Edwards, S.; Garman, M.; Hughes, A.; Letts, C.; Sinka, I. Clinical Forum Assessing the comprehension and production of language in young children: An account of the Reynell Developmental Language Scales III. Int. J. Lang. Commun. Disord. 1999, 34, 151–171. [ Google Scholar] [ CrossRef] [ PubMed]

Read through the chapter titles of the It Takes Two to Talk guidebook below to see what parents learn: You may not have known that small tweaks to the way you interact with your child can greatly increase her opportunities to build language comprehension and to use new words and phrases.It Takes Two to Talk was developed by expert speech-language pathologists and is grounded in extensive research. This evidence-based program has been proven in clinical practice to have positive effects on the communication development of young children. Girolametto, L.; Pearce, P.S.; Weitzman, E. Interactive Focused Stimulation for Toddlers with Expressive Vocabulary Delays. J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. 1996, 39, 1274–1283. [ Google Scholar] [ CrossRef] [ PubMed]

All the communication skills a Communicator develops form the foundation for learning to talk. The communication connection, the ability to be social and to use a combination of sounds, gestures and eye gaze to communicate lay the groundwork for lifelong communication. Once a child can establish joint attention, he has the tools to “talk” about things in the world and to listen to what others have to say; as such, the basics of conversation are established within the first 14 months of life. The Hanen Centre has, once again, done a terrific job of making the information in this newest edition of It Takes Two to Talk accessible to families and professionals, who can rely on the fact that the intervention strategies are based on years of research that support their usefulness in promoting improved communication skills in children with language delays." Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) [ 45, 46]. This is one of the most commonly used measurement instruments of parenting stress both in clinical and research contexts. The PSI-SF is a 36-item self-report instrument including three subscales. Each subscale consists of 12 items rated from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), with subscales scores ranging from 12 to 60. The Parental Distress subscale (PD) assesses the stress that parents are experiencing in their roles as parents (e.g., “I often feel I cannot handle things well”); the Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction subscale (PCDI) is focused on parents’ perceptions of their expectations about their child (e.g., “My child rarely does things for me that make me feel good”), and the Difficult Child (DC) subscale is centered on the behavior of the child that facilitates or hinders his/her education (e.g., “My child seems to cry or fuss more often than most children”). A total score is calculated by adding together the three subscales scores, ranging from 36 to 180. Scores of 90 or above may indicate a clinical level of stress. Abidin [ 43] reported Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.91 for PSI-SF total score and 0.87, 0.80, and 0.85 for PD, PCDI, and DC subscales respectively. The Spanish adaptation has also revealed good psychometric properties [ 46].In an easy-to-follow, step-by-step format, each chapter of the It Takes Two to Talk guidebook outlines a strategy and encourages parents to use the strategies by offering guidance and helpful examples.Each chapter of the guidebook corresponds to a section of the companion DVD in which parents can watch real-life examples of other parents implementing the strategies with their children.This makes it easy for parents to figure out whether they are using the strategy appropriately. Q: I may not have the opportunity to offer the It Takes Two to Talk Program to groups of families. Will the workshop still be useful to me?

Bavin, L.; Bretherton, L. The Early Language in Victoria Study. In Late Talkers, Predictors, and Outcomes; Rescorla, L., Dale, P.S., Eds.; Brookes Publishing: Baltimore, MD, USA, 2013; pp. 377–387. [ Google Scholar] Designed for parents of children aged 3-5 years old (typically developing, at risk of language delay or with a mild language delay), I'm Ready! offers parents the chance to help their children develop the literacy skills they need before starting school. Parents learn simple strategies that are fun for children and can be used while sharing books or throughout the day. The It Takes Two to Talk companion DVD shows you real-life video examples of children at each stage of communication development so that you can easily “see” your child on the DVD and identify their stage. Discover how to get “in-tune” with your child’s communication and interests so that they’ll be more motivated to interact and communicate with you. The First Words User uses one word to express a whole message. If he points to a chair and says “Mama,” he might mean either “That’s Mommy’s chair” or “Sit here, Mommy.” You can figure out what he means by looking at the whole situation and tuning in to his actions, tone of voice, gestures and facial expressions.

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Both parents and professionals benefit from Hanen’s integrated approach to early language intervention: professionals obtain the tools to support and guide parents, and parents learn how to make communication and interaction a natural part of every family activity and conversation. In this way, parents and speech-language pathologists collaborate so that speech therapy occurs throughout the child’s day, increasing the child’s opportunities to learn and use newly-acquired interaction and communication skills in different situations.

Working through the chapters in a step-by-step fashion, you would read about a strategy in the guidebook, and then watch examples on the DVD of real parents using that strategy with their child. Evidence-based strategiesGibbard, D.; Coglan, L.; Macdonald, J. Cost-effectiveness analysis of current practice and parent intervention for children under 3 years presenting with expressive language delay. Int. J. Lang. Commun. Disord. 2004, 39, 229–244. [ Google Scholar] [ CrossRef] Understand your child’s communication better and identify his specific stage of communication development so that you know what to expect next. I have just completed It Takes Two to Talk. What a difference this has made to the quality of life for my little girl. She is more confident and will initiate a conversation and join in activities. Several weeks ago she would not have done so.”