This study investigated the effectiveness of a phonological awareness intervention for 4-year-old children with Down syndrome. Seven children with Down syndrome who attended an early intervention centre participated in the intervention. Their performance on measures of phonological awareness (initial phoneme identity), letter name and sound knowledge, and print concepts preintervention and post-intervention, was compared with that of a randomly selected group of agematched peers with typical development. The intervention involved print referencing techniques whereby the children's parents were instructed to bring the children's attention to targeted letters and sounds within words and to draw their attention to the initial phonemes in words during daily shared book reading activities. The intervention was presented for a 6-week period. The results indicated a significant treatment effect on phonological awareness and letter knowledge for the children with Down syndrome. Additionally, above-chance performance on the initial phoneme identity task was contingent on letter knowledge of the particular phoneme. Individual profiles of the children with Down syndrome pre-intervention and post-intervention are presented, and implications for the management of preschool children approaching the age of integration into mainstream primary schools are discussed.

Parent-mediated interventions for promoting communication and language development in young children with Down syndrome.

The findings highlight the difficulties children with Down syndrome have in producing personal narratives, despite exposure to a national English curriculum that encourages children to develop and convey 'personal voice'. Clinical implications of these findings will be presented.

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Aims: This exploratory study investigated if there were differences in the home literacy environment of preschool children on the autism spectrum and preschool children with Down syndrome to determine if the home literacy environment may potentially be associated with strengths or weaknesses in children’s social communication skills. Methods: A total of 111 parents of preschoolers with identified disabilities completed a home literacy questionnaire. Results: Results indicated that both groups of parents started reading to their children at an early age and owned at least 25 children’s books. However, parents of children with Down syndrome read to their child more often, reported higher child interest in reading, and more frequently played rhyming games with their child. No group differences were found in teaching of letter names, although parents of children with autism reported a higher frequency of pointing out signs/words in the environment and reported their children knew more letter names. Group differences were also found in the relationship between parent behaviours, child interest, and children’s print-related skills. Conclusion: This study highlights the influence both parent behaviours and child interest may have on shared book reading practices of parents with their preschool children with disabilities.