Caregiver-Implemented Communication Interventions for Children Identified as Having Language Impairment 0 Through 48 Months of Age: A Scoping Review.

purposeCaregiver-implemented interventions are frequently used to support the early communication of young children with language impairment. Although there are numerous studies and meta-analyses supporting their use, there is a need to better understand the intervention approaches and identify potential gaps in the research base. With that premise, we conducted a scoping review to synthesize existing data with an end goal of informing future research directions.

methodWe identified relevant studies by comprehensively searching four databases. After deduplication, we screened 5,703 studies. We required included studies (

resultsWe synthesized results by age group of the child participants. There were no studies with children in the prenatal through 11-month-old age range identified in our review that yielded a caregiver language outcome measure with promising or compelling evidence. For the 12- through 23-month group, there were seven studies, which included eight communication intervention groups; for the 24- through 35-month group, there were 21 studies, which included 26 intervention groups; and for the 36- through 48-month group, there were 21 studies, which included 23 intervention groups. Across studies and age groups, there was considerable variability in the reporting of study characteristics, intervention approaches, and outcome measures.

conclusionOur scoping review highlights important research gaps and inconsistencies in study reporting that should be addressed in future investigations. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20289195.