Parent–child interaction in motor speech therapy

Abstract

Purpose: This study measures the reliability and sensitivity of a modified Parent–Child Interaction Observation scale (PCIOs) used to monitor the quality of parent–child interaction. The scale is part of a home-training program employed with direct motor speech intervention for children with speech sound disorders.Method: Eighty-four preschool age children with speech sound disorders were provided either high- (2×/week/10 weeks) or low-intensity (1×/week/10 weeks) motor speech intervention. Clinicians completed the PCIOs at the beginning, middle, and end of treatment. Inter-rater reliability (Kappa scores) was determined by an independent speech-language pathologist who assessed videotaped sessions at the midpoint of the treatment block. Intervention sensitivity of the scale was evaluated using a Friedman test for each item and then followed up with Wilcoxon pairwise comparisons where appropriate.Results: We obtained fair-to-good inter-rater reliability (Kappa = 0.33–0.64) for the PCIOs using only video-based scoring. Child-related items were more strongly influenced by differences in treatment intensity than parent-related items, where a greater number of sessions positively influenced parent learning of treatment skills and child behaviors.Conclusion: The adapted PCIOs is reliable and sensitive to monitor the quality of parent–child interactions in a 10-week block of motor speech intervention with adjunct home therapy.Implications for rehabilitationParent-centered therapy is considered a cost effective method of speech and language service delivery. However, parent-centered models may be difficult to implement for treatments such as developmental motor speech interventions that require a high degree of skill and training.For children with speech sound disorders and motor speech difficulties, a translated and adapted version of the parent–child observation scale was found to be sufficiently reliable and sensitive to assess changes in the quality of the parent–child interactions during intervention.In developmental motor speech interventions, high-intensity treatment (2×/week/10 weeks) facilitates greater changes in the parent–child interactions than low intensity treatment (1×/week/10 weeks).On one hand, parents may need to attend more than five sessions with the clinician to learn how to observe and address their child’s speech difficulties. On the other hand, children with speech sound disorders may need more than 10 sessions to adapt to structured play settings even when activities and therapy materials are age-appropriate.