Early Intervention for Children with Cleft Palate Using Language ENvironment Analysis

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to verify the effectiveness of early intervention for children with cleft palate using the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA), and to investigate whether LENA’s automated measures reflect the effects of early intervention.Methods: Thirteen children with cleft palate (CP) and their parents participated in all sessions of an early intervention program. Twelve children with CP and their parents were involved as a control group, participating only in pre- and post-intervention assessments. The intervention included five direct training sessions and interventions implemented by parents at home for 3 months. As part of the training, parents were instructed to record a one-day LENA recording before and after the assessments and during each session of direct training. During these sessions, parents reviewed their language stimulation and interaction skills, analyzing the results of automated LENA measures reflecting the language environment.Results: Children in the intervention group demonstrated a significantly greater change in expressive vocabulary size and consonant inventory after the intervention. Parents who received training exhibited significantly increased contingent utterances, such as imitation, expansion, and recast, in response to their children’s communication acts compared to those who did not receive the training. Children who received early intervention exhibited a significant improvement in conversation turn counts and child vocalization counts, as measured by automated LENA measures.Conclusion: The results support that using LENA technology can improve early intervention for children with CP. LENA measures can monitor positive changes in children’s speech-language development and parents’ use of communication strategies.