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Young children with Down syndrome (DS) often demonstrate impaired oral vocabulary development; however, few intervention studies have focused on this population. One promising method to improve the oral vocabulary of young children with DS may be to train their parents to intervene at home. In this study, we used tele-education methods (e.g., videoconferences, email) to coach parents to implement an adapted version of Down Syndrome LanguagePlus (DSL+). Four children with DS (ages 5-6 years) participated in the multiple probe across behaviors (i.e., stories) single-case research design study. Increasing trends during baseline and data variability precluded confirmation of a functional relationship; however, results indicated that all participants increased their scores on mastery measures of targeted vocabulary. Three of the four parents implemented DSL+ with high fidelity and responded favorably to social validity interviews.

Phonological awareness (PA) is defined as a child's ability to hear and manipulate parts of spoken language (National Early Literacy Panel [NELP], 2009; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2000). Ensuring that children develop PA increases the likelihood that they are successful with later reading instruction. Two types of PA skills are most important to future reading readiness (NICHD, 2000). These include the ability to "blend" smaller sound units into words (/b/ /a/ /t/ [right arrow] "bat") and "segment" spoken words into smaller sound units ("milk" [right arrow] /m/ /ilk/). Young children with Down Syndrome (DS) often struggle to develop PA skills, particularly in comparison with peers without disabilities (Lemons & Fuchs, 2010; Martin, Klusek, Estigarribia, & Roberts, 2009; Naess, 2016). Nonetheless, there is a significant relation between PA, current reading abilities, and later reading skills for children with DS (Lemons & Fuchs, 2010). This makes early PA interventions especially important. Furthermore, many children with DS exhibit potentially problematic behaviors, such as work avoidance (Fidler & Nadel, 2007). Therefore, early childhood educators must consider comprehensive PA interventions that address the academic and behavioral needs of their children with DS. Explicit instruction is especially important for children with DS who often demonstrate deficits in PA-related concepts and are at risk for later reading difficulties (Lemons & Fuchs, 2010; Martin et al., 2009; Naess, 2016). With explicit instruction, children with disabilities broadly (see Gillon, 2000) and DS specifically (see Lemons & Fuchs, 2010; van Bysterveldt, Gillon, & Foster-Cohen, 2010) show improved PA skills, which support later reading development. This article describes "Boost," a brief, explicit PA intervention designed for preschoolers with DS.

Young children with Down syndrome (DS) often demonstrate impaired oral vocabulary development; however, few intervention studies have focused on this population. One promising method to improve the oral vocabulary of young children with DS may be to train their parents to intervene at home. In this study, we used tele-education methods (e.g., videoconferences, email) to coach parents to implement an adapted version of Down Syndrome LanguagePlus (DSL+). Four children with DS (ages 5–6 years) participated in the multiple probe across behaviors (i.e., stories) single-case research design study. Increasing trends during baseline and data variability precluded confirmation of a functional relationship; however, results indicated that all participants increased their scores on mastery measures of targeted vocabulary. Three of the four parents implemented DSL+ with high fidelity and responded favorably to social validity interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ms. Jennifer decides to implement Boost 3 days a week when she works with Elijah during his class's center rotations. i I Boost i is a targeted PA intervention that explicitly teaches children how to blend and segment word parts. ") Elijah repeats the whole word back and then Ms. Jennifer prompts him to state the word parts (e.g., "What are the three sounds? For half of the words, Ms. Jennifer gives Elijah an array of pictures cards with three possible answers from which Elijah selects the correct answer. Ms. Jennifer wonders how she can boost Elijah's early reading skills to maximize his chance to benefit from kindergarten reading instruction and put him on a path to becoming an independent reader. i Phonological awareness (PA) is defined as a child's ability to hear and manipulate parts of spoken language ([14]; [15]. [Extracted from the article]

Phonological awareness (PA) is a critical prerequisite skill for learning to read in an alphabetic language. Given that preschoolers with Down syndrome (DS) often exhibit deficits in PA, additional research is needed on methods to enhance their learning. In this study, we implemented a multiple probe across behaviors single-case design study to evaluate the effect of explicit PA instruction on the skills of 2 preschool-aged participants with DS. Specifically, we assessed the children's abilities to blend and segment syllables, onset-rime, and individual phonemes. Results indicated a functional relation between intervention and one child's performance on a researcher-created assessment of blending and segmenting directly targeted and novel words; 2 demonstrations of effect were indicated for the second child. A post-hoc item analysis indicated that both participants made greater gains in blending than in segmenting. Implications for practitioners and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]