Cited by 179Language Development and DisordersHearing Impairment and CommunicationAssistive Technology in Communication and Mobility

Association of Parent Training With Child Language Development: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Open access
Roberts, Megan Y., Curtis, Philip R., Sone, Bailey J., Hampton, Lauren H.·2019·JAMA Pediatrics

Abstract

Importance: Training parents to implement strategies to support child language development is crucial to support long-term outcomes, given that as many as 2 of 5 children younger than 5 years have difficulty learning language. Objective: To examine the association between parent training and language and communication outcomes in young children. Data Sources: Searches of ERIC, Academic Search Complete, PsycINFO, and PsycARTICLES were conducted on August 11, 2014; August 18, 2016; January 23, 2018; and October 30, 2018. Study Selection: Studies included in this review and meta-analysis were randomized or nonrandomized clinical trials that evaluated a language intervention that included parent training with children with a mean age of less than 6 years. Studies were excluded if the parent was not the primary implementer of the intervention, the study included fewer than 10 participants, or the study did not report outcomes related to language or communication. Data Extraction and Synthesis: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were applied to a total of 31 778 articles identified for screening, with the full text of 723 articles reviewed and 76 total studies ultimately included. Main Outcomes and Measures: Main outcomes included language and communication skills in children with primary or secondary language impairment and children at risk for language impairment. Results: This meta-analysis included 59 randomized clinical trials and 17 nonrandomized clinical trials including 5848 total participants (36.4 female [20.8%]; mean [SD] age, 3.5 [3.9] years). The intervention approach in 63 studies was a naturalistic teaching approach, and 16 studies used a primarily dialogic reading approach. There was a significant moderate association between parent training and child communication, engagement, and language outcomes (mean [SE] Hedges g, -0.33 [0.06]; P < .001). The association between parent training and parent use of language support strategies was large (mean [SE] Hedges g, 0.55 [0.11], P < .001). Children with developmental language disorder had the largest social communication outcomes (mean [SE] Hedges g, 0.37 [0.17]); large and significant associations were observed for receptive (mean [SE] Hedges g, 0.92 [0.30]) and expressive language (mean [SE] Hedges g, 0.83 [0.20]). Children at risk for language impairments had moderate effect sizes across receptive language (mean [SE] Hedges g, 0.28 [0.15]) and engagement outcomes (mean [SE] Hedges g, 0.36 [0.17]). Conclusions and Relevance: The findings suggest that training parents to implement language and communication intervention techniques is associated with improved outcomes for children and increased parent use of support strategies. These findings may have direct implications on intervention and prevention.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.1197

Cites

106 of 106 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The lack of statistically significant subgroup results by child age is consistent with prior meta-analyses that showed no age effects among parenting interventions focused during early childhood or spanning broader age ranges.

    “The lack of statistically significant subgroup results by child age are consistent with the few prior meta-analyses that have similarly shown no age effects among parenting interventions focused during early childhood [9,22] or spanning broader age ranges from early to middle childhood [49] or birth to age 18 [62].”

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Roberts, M. Y., Curtis, P. R., Sone, B. J., & Hampton, L. H.
Affiliations
Northwestern University (US)
Corresponding author
Roberts, Megan Y.
Venue
JAMA Pediatrics
Published
2019-07-01
Volume
173
Issue
7
Pages
671
ISSN
  • 1072-4710 (ISSN-L)
  • 2168-6203
OpenAlex
W2945314730
Cited by
179
References
106
Citations by year
2026: 29 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 3
FWCI
2.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (UL1TR001422)
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Hearing Impairment and Communication
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility
Keywords
parent training, child language acquisition, language intervention, specific language impairment, language impairment, communication skills, naturalistic teaching, dialogic reading, receptive language, expressive language, social communication, language support strategies, early childhood, parental involvement, communication outcomes, language outcomes
MeSH terms
Child, Child Language, Communication, Humans, Language Development Disorders, Parents

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review