Abstract
Introduction:
It Takes Two to Talk (ITTT) – The Hanen Programme is a family-focused programme for parents of young children with speech and language delays (SLD). It aims to equip parents with the skills to help their child learn to communicate and use language. This programme is widely used overseas, but there is little evidence about its effect on the Singapore population. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of ITTT in improving a child's speech and language abilities, and in equipping parents with the skills necessary to teach their children.
Methods:
Parents of four children aged 26–41 months with a diagnosis of SLD participated in the study. The child's language was evaluated pre- and post-ITTT by a parent report communicative development inventory. Parental perceptions were evaluated with a knowledge, attitudes and perceptions questionnaire.
Results:
Improvement was seen post-program in expressive vocabulary for all participating children, with an increase in the median vocabulary age-equivalence of the child, beyond that of the chronological time that had elapsed. All parents achieved a pass rate in scores on knowledge-based questions. While 2/3 of parents felt ill-equipped to handle their child's SLD, all were interested to attend training in this area as they saw a need to implement changes in the way they helped their children.
Conclusion:
Results suggest that ITTT may be a useful tool in helping children with SLD. However, more research needs to be done on a larger population locally to determine the effectiveness of the programme.