Researchers at the University of York are embarking on a fascinating and important study of to see if we can encourage more early babble in babies with Down syndrome and improve later speech and language development.
Babies who have Down syndrome often make fewer sounds and usually start saying words later than other children. This new UK-based study is testing a new app, BabblePlay, which is designed to encourage babies to make more vocal sounds.
When a baby makes a sound, BabblePlay responds by showing colourful, moving shapes on an iPad. If babies enjoy seeing the shapes, they may make more sounds to see more shapes. Over time, this may help support early speech and language development.
The study
This study will explore whether playing with the app for six weeks helps babies with Down syndrome to make sounds not just while using the app, but in everyday life too. The researchers will also look at whether increased baby vocalisations lead to more caregiver talk and support later language development.
The research team are looking for families (living anywhere in the UK) with babies aged 3 to 13 months to volunteer to participate.
Families will take part from their home over several months. Babies will be randomly allocated to either the intervention group, who will use the BabblePlay app for six weeks, or to the control group. All families will complete three home audio recordings at different timepoints and an online language questionnaire 11 months later.
This study is being conducted by a team at the University of York, is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and is also supported by Down Syndrome Education International.
Helping you and your child – and future generations
Participating in research is a fantastic way to help your child, and to help future generations of children with Down syndrome.
While there is no guarantee that every new idea will help every child, we cannot learn what does work and what does not without careful and systematic studies. These studies depend on the kind generosity of the families who participate.
Much of we understand today about development and learning for young people with Down syndrome has been discovered thanks to the support of many thousands of families in many countries participating in studies like this one.
This understanding is helping many young people with Down syndrome to achieve so much more than was even thought possible 40 years ago.
Contact the research team
If you can, please consider getting in touch with research team to find out more:
