The Babble Boot Camp

Turning the knowledge of genetics into action

Our Ongoing Research Study

What is the Babble Boot Camp©?

Classic Galactosemia (CG) is an inborn error of metabolism. In the US, babies are diagnosed with this disease via newborn screening. Most children with CG are diagnosed with severe speech and language disorders later, when they are old enough to show these types of disorders - usually around age 2 or 3 years. Even though the risk for speech and language disorders is known at birth, infants with CG receive essentially the same assessment and treatment approaches as any other child.

In the Speech/Language Genetics Lab, we are all about leveraging knowledge of genotype-phenotype associations towards innovative approaches to achieve improved outcomes. The Babble Boot Camp was created in 2017. We provide an extensive program of activities and routines via parent training, starting when the infant is 2 months old and ending at age 24 months. Typically, children with CG are quiet and don't coo or babble much; we teach them to kick the vocalizing into high gear. We provide support with first words, vocabulary growth, syntactic complexity, and communicative efficiency at ages long before traditional therapy would kick in. The pilot cohort consists of 15 families including even some outside of the US who have heard of the Babble Boot Camp. Proof that the intervention works is going to come from standardized assessments at ages 30, 42, and 54 months. The first few children recently turned 2 years old and testing is underway. We are gearing up for a larger clinical trial with 75 families over 4 years. If we can show that prevention in the earliest stages is better than intervention after delays have been diagnosed, this will be a game changer in the service delivery models, first and foremost for children with CG but we plan to test this approach in children at other types of genetic and familial risk for severe communication disorders.

*Want to learn more? Contact: babblebootcamp@gmail.com

*To help support this study and make a donation to the Babble Boot Camp Fund, please click the button below. You can donate anonymously if you like, and be assured that 95% of your contributions go directly to this project.

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Down syndrome Pilot Study

The encouraging data trends in children with CG who received the speech/language intervention motivates the inclusion of children with other types of known predictive risk for severe speech and language disorders. One such population is children with Down syndrome.

Our team of experienced collaborators include Professor Sue Buckley, OBE, CPsychol AFBPsS, Director for Science and Research at Down Syndrome Education International.

Babble Boot Camp will be the first proactive speech/language intervention for infants with Down syndrome with several components of the intervention directly addressing known areas of delay in children with DS.

*Want to learn more about the pilot study? Contact: babblebootcamp@gmail.com

*To help support this study and make a donation to the Babble Boot Camp Fund, please click the button below. You can donate anonymously if you like, and be assured that 95% of your contributions go directly to this project.

Donate Now

Play Boot Camp Study

Play Boot Camp is a new pilot study based on the design of the Babble Boot Camp intervention. Play Boot Camp is designed to foster and boost development not only targeting speech and language, but also cognition and motor skills. This study will consist of a set of toy-based parent-child play activities to be done daily in the participating families’ homes. Jointly, a speech-language pathologist and an early childhood expert will coach parents in these activities such that they support the child’s development across all target domains.

*Want to learn more about this pilot study? Contact: babblebootcamp@gmail.com

Babble Boot Camp Publications

Armstrong-Heimsoth, A., Monroe, A., Cupp, C., Potter, N., VanDam, M., & Peter, B. (2023). Motor Milestones: Sensory motor trends of young children with classic galactosemia. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention. doi: 10.1080/19411243.2023.2192206 (PDF)

Potter, N. L., VanDam, M., Davis, J., Eng, L., Finestack, L., Heinlen, V., Schrock, C., Stoel-Gammon, C., Seltzer, R., Thompson, L., & Peter, B. (2023). Virtual Post-Intervention Speech and Language Assessment of Toddler and Preschool Participants in Babble Boot Camp. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. pp. 1-13. PubMed: 37235746. doi: 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00687 (PDF)

Peter, B., Bruce, L., Finestack, L., Dinu, V., Wilson, M., Klein-Seetharaman, J., Lewis, C.R., Braden, B.B., Tang, Y., Scherer, N., VanDam, M., & Potter, N. (2023). Precision medicine as a new frontier in speech-language pathology: How applying insights from behavior genomics can improve outcomes in communication disorders. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology. PubMed ID: 37146603. doi: 10.1044/2023_AJSLP-22-00205 (PDF)

Finestack, L. H., Potter, N., VanDam, M., Davis, J., Bruce, L., Sherer, N., Eng, L., & Peter, B. (2022). Feasibility of a proactive parent-implemented communication intervention delivered via telepractice for children with classic galactosemia. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 31(6): 2527-2538. doi: 10.1044/2022_AJSLP-22-00107 (PDF)

Peter, B., Davis, J., Finestack, L., Stoel-Gammon, C., VanDam, M., Bruce, L., Kim, Y., Eng, L., Cotter, S., Landis, E., Beames, S., Scherer, N., Knerr, I., Williams, D., Schrock, C., Potter, N. (2022). Translating principles of precision medicine into speech-language pathology: Clinical trial of a proactive speech and language intervention for infants with classic galactosemia. Human Genetics and Genomics Advances, 3(3), 100119. doi:10.1016/j.xhgg.2022.100119 (PDF)

Peter, B., Davis, J., *Cotter, S., *Belter, A., **Williams, E., *Stumpf, M., Bruce, L., *Eng, L., Kim, Y., Finestack, L., Stoel-Gammon, C., ^Williams, D., Scherer, N., VanDam, M., & Potter, N. (2021) Toward Preventing Speech and Language Disorders of Known Genetic Origin: First Post-Intervention Results of Babble Boot Camp in Children With ClassicGalactosemia. Am J Speech Lang Pathol, 30(6), 2616-2634. doi:10.1044/2021_AJSLP-21-00098 (PDF)

Peter, B., Potter, N., Davis, J., Donenfeld-Peled, I., Finestack, L., Stoel-Gammon, C., Lien, K., Bruce, L., Vose, C., Eng, L., Yokoyama, H., Olds, D., & VanDam, M. (2020). Toward a paradigm shift from deficit-based to proactive speech and language treatment: Randomized pilot trial of the Babble Boot Camp in infants with classic galactosemia. F1000, 8:271 doi:10.12688/f1000research.18062.5 (PDF)

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