Babble Boot Camp: Preventing Speech and Language Disorders in Children With Classic Galactosemia

Status: Active_not_recruiting
Location: See location...
Intervention Type: Behavioral
Study Type: Interventional
Study Phase: Early Phase 1
SUMMARY

A critical knowledge gap is whether proactive intervention can improve speech and language outcomes in infants at known risk for communication disorders. Speech and language assessments and treatments are usually not initiated until deficits can be diagnosed, no earlier than age 2-3 years. Preventive services are not available. Children with classic galactosemia (CG) hold the keys towards investigating whether proactive services are more effective than conventional management. CG is a recessively inherited inborn error of metabolism characterized by defective conversion of galactose. Despite early detection and strict adherence to lactose-restricted diets, children with CG are at very high risk not only for motor and learning disabilities but also for severe speech sound disorder and language impairment. Delays are evident from earliest signals of communication and persist into adulthood in many cases but speech/language assessment and treatment are usually not initiated until deficits manifest. However, because CG is diagnosed via newborn screening, the known genotype-phenotype association can be leveraged to investigate the efficacy of proactive interventions during the acquisition of prespeech (2 to 12 months) and early communication skills (13 to 24 months). If this proactive intervention is more effective than standard care regarding speech and language outcomes in children with CG, this will change their clinical management from deficit-based to proactive services. It will also motivate investigating this approach in infants with other types of known risk factors, e.g., various genetic causes and very low birth weight. The Babble Boot Camp is a program for children with CG, ages 2 to 24 months. The intervention is implemented by a pediatric speech-language pathologist (SLP) via parent training. Activities and routines are designed to foster earliest signals of communication, increase coo and babble behaviors, support the emergence of first words and word combinations, and expand syntactic complexity. The SLP meets with parents online every week for 10 to 15 minutes to provide instruction, feedback, and guidance. Close monitoring of progress is achieved via regularly administered questionnaires, a monthly day-long audio recording, and the SLPs weekly progress notes. At age 24 months, the active phase of the Babble Boot Camp ends. The children receive a professional speech/language assessment at ages 2 1/2, 3 1/2, and 4 1/2 years.

Eligibility
Participation Requirements
Sex: All
Minimum Age: 2 months
Maximum Age: 4
Healthy Volunteers: f
View:

• Newborn diagnosis of classic galactosemia

• Any ethnic or racial background

• Primary language in the home is English

• Any geographic region in the US and other countries because the intervention is done online

• Computer and internet access (we can help if a family wants to participate but doesn't have this access)

• At least one parent must have at least an 8th grade education to be able to fill out the questionnaires

Locations
United States
Arizona
Arizona State University
Tempe
Time Frame
Start Date: 2019-05-01
Completion Date: 2025-08-31
Participants
Target number of participants: 285
Treatments
Experimental: Treatment cohort with classic galactosemia
These children and their parents receive the Babble Boot Camp intervention and also participate in the close monitoring activities (progress reports that the speech-language pathologist generates during the online meeting with the family; monthly daylong audio recording; questionnaires that are sent out every three to six months; formal speech and language testing at ages 2 1/2, 3 1/2, and 4 1/2 years).
Experimental: Treatment cohort with classic galactosemia, delayed start
The children in the control cohort enter the study when they are younger than 5 months old and participate in the close monitoring until they are 24 months old. They start getting the same treatment type and intensity as the treatment cohort but at a delayed age, when they turn 15 months.
No_intervention: Older control cohort with classic galactosemia
The children in the older control cohort are 6 months to 4 1/2 years old and provide standardized test results in the area of speech and language development at child ages 2 1/2, 3 1/2, and 4 1/2 years. They receive no treatment and no close monitoring. These families provide questionnaire information every three months until child age 24 months.
No_intervention: Typical controls
These children are free of any medical or developmental diagnosis. They enter the study at ages 2 to 5 months and provide close monitoring data until they are 24 months old, then they receive standardized speech and language testing at ages 2 1/2, 3 1/2, and 4 1/2 years, just like the treatment cohort, but the typical controls receive no treatment under this study.
Sponsors
Leads: Arizona State University
Collaborators: Washington State University

This content was sourced from clinicaltrials.gov