{"id":33907,"date":"2025-05-19T08:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T15:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/?p=33907"},"modified":"2025-05-19T08:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T15:56:14","slug":"babble-boot-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/19\/babble-boot-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"SHS’s Babble Boot Camp Shows Promise for Children with Down Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An innovative early intervention method for childhood speech and language disorders developed at the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine’s Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences (SHS) has shown promise for boosting the verbal communication skills of infants with Down syndrome, according to new research published in the <\/a>American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Babble Boot Camp is a proactive and evidence-based approach to prevent or minimize speech and language disorders in at-risk babies and toddlers through a series of caregiver-led activities implemented from birth to age 24 months. While children typically begin speech therapy at the age of two or later, after they start talking and show signs of a speech delay, Babble Boot Camp is unique for intervening before children show signs of a delay\u2014when they \u201cbabble\u201d but don\u2019t yet talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intervention, which was created by WSU Professor Emerita Nancy Potter, PhD, CCC-SLP, and Associate Professor Mark VanDam, PhD, with collaborators across the country, was first tested in babies with classic galactosemia, a rare metabolic disease diagnosed during newborn screening that greatly increases the likelihood of developing a severe speech or language disorder. Clinical trial testing showed nothing short of “spectacular” results, Potter noted, with participating children showing typical language scores<\/a> and increased speech and language development<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The potential applications of Babble Boot Camp are broad. Researchers are now testing its efficacy across multiple high-risk populations for childhood speech and language disorders, including individuals with Down syndrome, who frequently face lifelong verbal communication challenges that begin with language delays in infancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This recently published pilot study of 10 children with Down syndrome aged 4\u201316 months found that participants showed increased babble complexity, spoke their first words sooner, and grew their vocabularies beyond expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study was lead by Arizona State University’s Beate Peter, PhD, CCC-SLP, in collaboration with Potter, VanDam, WSU Associate Professor Lauren Thompson, PhD, CCC-SLP, and WSU Professor Emerita Carol Stoel-Gammon, PhD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professional training in the Babble Boot Camp approach is available to providers and caregivers nationwide through an accredited online training course<\/a> developed by Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured Faculty<\/h2>\n\n\n
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The innovative early intervention method for childhood speech and language disorders was first developed at WSU to support verbal communication in babies with classic galactosemia, a rare metabolic disease. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25158,"featured_media":33908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[30],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33907"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33918,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33907\/revisions\/33918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33907"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=33907"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=33907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}