UCLA

Latino families of children with Down syndrome (DS) are underrepresented in social communication interventions. It is unclear whether interventions that primarily include non- Latino White, middle-class families also lead to positive social communication outcomes among children from culturally diverse backgrounds. The current study included a Latino sample (n=34) to assess to what extent parents of children with DS acquired the strategies of the parent- mediated social communication intervention, JASPER, and whether parent’s level of education and primary language spoken at home (Spanish vs. English) influenced strategy uptake. The study also assessed language outcomes, measured using the Preschool Language Scale-5 (PLS-5; Zimmerman et al., 2011) and number of different word roots (NDWR) coded from a natural language sample, following intervention. Results suggest that parents of children with DS in the JASPER condition reached fidelity levels that were comparable to autism spectrum disorder samples. The intervention improved children’s NDWR significantly but did not have any effects on their PLS-5 scores.