effects of parent-implemented language intervention on communication skills of iranian toddlers: a pilot randomized control trial

Introduction: in recent years, some studies have indicated that some aspects of language performanceof children from low socioeconomic status (ses) families are lower in language tests. appropriate andtimely interventions can partially prevent communication problems in these children. this study aimedto investigate the effect of a parental education program on word acquisition rates in iranian toddlersfrom low ses families.materials and methods: sixty-six mothers (toddlers aged 12-14 months) participated in this randomizedcontrolled trial study. these mothers were allocated to the experimental group and control group usingthe randomization method of the permuted block (each block=6). after baseline assessments, mothersin the experimental group received parental education program aimed at enriching the mother-childinteractions and mothers’ knowledge of communication development for 9 weeks. the control groupdid not receive any education. the outcome measures were children’s scores on the persian version ofthe mcarthur-bates communicative development inventories and mothers’ scores in multiple-choiceexams regarding workshops’ contents. data were analyzed using of chi-square test, independent t testand paired samples t-test, mann-whitney u-test, and wilcoxon signed-rank test.results: both groups had a significant increase in vocabulary size, while changes in the experimentalgroup were more than double that of the control group (p<0.001). other aspects of communicativebehaviors, such as imitation, naming, and intentionality were changed only in the experimental groupaccording to the course of typical development (p<0.001). mothers significantly got higher scoresafter the workshops in a multiple-choice exam regarding children’s communication, language, andinteraction (p<0.001).conclusion: the results demonstrate that mothers’ knowledge of communication development ismalleable and probably has positive effects on the communication behaviors of toddlers from lowses backgrounds.