Down Syndrome Research Forum 2025

My name is Abbie Grace, and I am an undergraduate research assistant at the CDL Lab. On 18th March 2025, I had the opportunity to attend this year's Down Syndrome Research Forum. This international event is an opportunity for people interested in Down Syndrome research to meet and discuss current research and practice. I attended the session “Babble Boot Camp for Infants with Down Syndrome: Pilot Study of a Proactive Parent-Led Intervention” led by Dr. Beate Peter. The session focused on a study that investigates an early speech intervention for children with Down Syndrome (DS) and the role parents play in it.

The panel of speakers for this session included Dr. Beate Peter, Dr. Amanda Boutot, and Miriam Kornelis. Dr. Peter began with a concept review of the study itself, highlighting the idea of early intervention from birth. Babble Boot Camp (BBC) is a proactive way for parents who have a child at risk of speech and language development delay to intervene at an early age. The initial pilot study involved 10 families with children with DS aged between 4 and 16 months. These families met weekly with a speech-language pathologist (SLP) and a play expert. By working with an SLP, parents learnt how to implement daily routines and activities on their own for the child at home, and foster child-targeted behaviors and skills. Dr. Peter commented on the importance of the parents’ role in this study, saying that parental behavior highly influences the child’s behavior, which in turn significantly affects the child’s skills. The results of this study were promising, as 8 out of 10 of the children spoke their first word before the age of 2, and parents were delighted with the outcomes.

Miriam Kornelis then continued the presentation, discussing a new study that examines group-level treatment effects for families of children with DS. This study focuses on the babble complexity of children with DS before 12 months of age. Parents attend monthly standardized parent group education sessions on speech skills, language skills, and parent-child interactions. They involve check-ins with parents with updates on the child, new monthly topics for discussion, new goals for the families to focus on, and the chance for families to share their experiences.

Finally, Dr. Boutot discussed a new development for the project: the development and trial of Babble Boot Camp Play. This is an integrated approach to DS child support that works on verbal, motor, social, and cognitive abilities through play. Working with families with children aged 4 to 11 months, the approach focuses on skills like exploratory motor behavior, babbling, and joint attention. Dr. Boutot commented on the importance of this, saying, “Building these skills builds play opportunities that build other developmental skills.” She also raised the question of why this matters for children with DS and shared that because speech and language are such a challenge for these children, and babies are so attached to early communication, early intervention is extremely important so that these children get a head start on their communicative abilities.

Overall, I learned so much from the Down Syndrome Research Forum. This research makes me excited for the future of children with DS and how psychologists and parent-child interactions play a significant role in early development. The presentations were incredibly fascinating, and I am very happy to have had the opportunity to learn from a group of driven and intelligent individuals who are passionate about their work.