A Systematic Review of Parent Training for Children with Communication Disorders in Korea

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to review the research trends in regards to parent training and the speech and language development of children with communication disorders in Korea, to evaluate the effectiveness of parent training for improvement of children’s communication skills, and to provide evidence-based directions for parent training. Methods: A search of 4 databases, and manual searching resulted in the identification of 1,222 relevant articles in domestic journals. The 19 articles published from 2001 to 2020 in domestic journals were selected according to the Participants, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcomes (PICO) criteria. Three authors did article selection, data extraction, and quality assessment using the Risk of Bias for Nonrandomized studies (ROBANS). Results: First, the quality of selected articles was high overall. Second, very few studies have empirically examined the effectiveness of parent training intervention on the speech and language development of children with communication disorders. Third, most programs have been provided for mothers and no program focused on supporting fathers. Most programs focused on infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with communication disorders. Fourth, regarding studies on research type and method of data collection; most studies were conducted by experimental study. Lastly, areas of measurement involved participant interactions, development, parent perceptions, and parent experiences. The research studies reported positive effects of parent training intervention on the speech and language development of children with communication disorders. Conclusion: Based on these results, we discussed the limitations of identified studies and limitations of the current systematic review are discussed, as well as implications of the findings for research and practice for children with communication disorders regarding parent training intervention.