International journal of language & communication disorders
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Int J Lang Commun Disord · Jul 2011
Randomized Controlled TrialParent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) in school-aged children with specific language impairment.
Parents play a critical role in their child's language development. Therefore, advising parents of a child with language difficulties on how to facilitate their child's language might benefit the child. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has been developed specifically for this purpose. In PCIT, the speech-and-language therapist (SLT) works collaboratively with parents, altering interaction styles to make interaction more appropriate to their child's level of communicative needs. ⋯ Despite the small group sizes, this study provides preliminary evidence that PCIT can achieve its treatment goals with 8-10-year-olds who have expressive language impairments. This has potentially important implications for how mainstream speech and language services provide intervention to school-aged children. In contrast to direct one-to-one therapy, PCIT offers a single block of therapy where the parents' communication and interaction skills are developed to provide the child with an appropriate language-rich environment, which in turn could be more cost-effective for the service provider.