A technology-assisted language intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing: A randomized clinical trial

Meinzen-Derr, J., Sheldon, R., Altaye, M., Lane, L., Mays, L., &Wiley, S. (2021). A technology-assisted language intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing: A randomized clinical trial. Pediatrics, 147(2). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds/2020-025734

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children typically experience ongoing difficulties with language, even though many advances have been made in identifying hearing loss earlier and providing early intervention. DHH children face difficulties across many areas of their lives, which may lead to negative social, behavioural, educational, and even employment outcomes.

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is the use of ways of communicating other than spoken language in order to share a message with others. This may include the use of gestures, facial expressions, signs, writing, or using an app to say your message for you. AAC is one approach shown by research to be effective for supporting individuals with communication difficulties.

Meinzen-Derr et al. (2021) shared the results of a study comparing the spoken language skills of DHH children in two groups:

1) a group receiving weekly speech-language therapy without the use of AAC, and

2) a group receiving weekly speech-language therapy with the use of AAC.

The authors collected language samples (recorded conversations between the child and the speech-language pathologist) and measured specific language skills including sentence complexity, average length of turn in the conversation, and vocabulary size, as well as overall receptive language (ability to understand language) and expressive language (ability to use language).

The authors found that the group of DHH children receiving speech-language therapy with the use of AAC showed greater increases in sentence complexity, turn length in conversations, and vocabulary growth. This group also showed greater increases in overall receptive (understanding of) and expressive (use of) language skills.

This research suggests that the use of AAC as a support within speech and language therapy sessions could be an effective and evidence-based approach to supporting receptive and expressive spoken language skills in DHH children. The use of AAC as a support in speech and language therapy sessions may be beneficial for use with other children as well.

Blogger: Rachel Benninger is a combined MClSc/PhD candidate working under the supervision of Dr. Lisa Archibald