Novel Proactive Speech-Language Intervention Is More Effective Than Usual Care: Randomized Controlled Trial of Babble Boot Camp for Infants With Classic Galactosemia.

The usual-care classic galactosemia control group was small, with only 10 children, and only 7 were available at 2.5 years, so their scores were averaged across ages 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5 years. Roughly half of the children in the two BBC intervention groups and the CG control group had received speech and/or language usual care outside the study, so the effect of BBC alone cannot be isolated. Three children in the Motor Milestones group could not complete the GFTA-3 because their verbal skills were too low, and they were not counted as below cutoff; they later received an autism diagnosis. The TD control group was not balanced for sex, with more than twice as many girls as boys, and their scores were generally above normal limits. The Talk Time group had fewer REEL-4 scores than the other groups because the test was added after some participants had already been assessed. The study reports outcomes at 2.5 years, not whether benefits persist into preschool and school years.

The study was supported by NIH, Arizona State University seed and startup funds, private donations to the Arizona State University Foundation Babble Boot Camp gift account, and NSF/Washington Research Foundation. The paper does not state other conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that early speech-language coaching alone caused the better outcomes. Roughly half of the children also received usual speech-language care outside the trial, and the Motor Milestones group received a motor intervention before speech-language coaching. The contribution of any single component cannot be separated.