The effectiveness of therapist-led family-centered language intervention for children with language delay.

Background: China's language therapist shortage and intergenerational caregiving trends underscore the need for family-based language training, yet such interventions are underutilized and family roles undervalued. This study aims to investigate the effect of a therapist-led family-centered intervention on children with language delay.

Methods: The study comprised 134 children, comprising 59 girls and 75 boys, aged between 2 and 5 years (39.92±10.23 months) who presented with language delay. These participants were selected from the pediatric rehabilitation ward of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University from July 2021 and July 2023. They were divided into a control group (n=70) receiving language therapy led by a language therapist, and an observation group (n=64) receiving therapist-led family-centered language intervention in conjunction with the treatment provided to the control group. Demographic characteristics were analyzed. The Gesell and Sign-significant (S-S) were used for assessments before and after the intervention.

Results: No significant demographic differences were found between the groups. Both groups demonstrated significant improvements in language development following a 3-month intervention as assessed by the Gesell assessment. The control group showed an increase from 52.97±4.79 to 65.97±3.48 (P<0.001), while the observation group improved from 53.53±4.06 to 71.98±4.51 (P<0.001). Additionally, prior to the intervention, differences were observed between the control group and the observation group in S-S assessments, particularly in symbolic form and instructional content (P=0.04 and P<0.001) as well as foundational research topics (P=0.04 and P<0.001). Following the intervention, the observation group demonstrated more significant advancements in language development compared to control group as evidenced by higher Gesell scores (18.45±5.72 vs. 13.00±6.16, P<0.001), S-S assessments in symbolic form and instructional content (1.11±1.55 vs. 0.53±1.57, P=0.03), and foundational research topics (1.42±1.88 vs. 0.64±2.14, P=0.02). Based on the Gesell assessment, there was a significant improvement in personal-social skills for both groups of children following intervention (all P<0.05), with the observation group demonstrating a more pronounced enhancement compared to the control group (4.73±4.07 vs. 2.20±3.68, P<0.001).

Conclusions: Therapist-led family-centered interventions enhance language development, with parents playing a significant role in mitigating skip-generation caregiving and fostering greater parent-child interactions.