A Study of the Guidance Program for the Speech Development of Hearing Impaired Infants

Author: Teh-yeh Hwang

Abstract：

This is a three-year experimental research report. The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of early home intervention in developing listening skills and speech in hearing irnparied infants. In the end of the three years' study, 47 cases had more than 6 months' treatment, 42 cases had 12 months' treatment, 32 cases had 18 months' treatment, 26 cases had 24 months' treatment, 17 cases had 30 months' treatment, and 8 cases had 36 months' treatment. After treatment, (1) it was found that the hearing impaired children had significantly high scores in the following five developmental areas: gross motor, fine motor, situation comprehen-sion, self help, and personal-social. The pre-scores of expressive language and com-prehension conceptual ability of hearing impaired children were much lower than those of hearing children, but after treatment the development scores in these areas were also significantly high. (2) Children who had treatment had higher receptive and expressive language scores than children of same age levels who had not had treat-ment. (3) When auditory and verbal skills were included in assessment, the language development scores of hearing.impaired children, after treatment, were lower than those of hearing children, but when auditory and verbal items were eliminated, as far as possible, the scores exceeded the normative rate of development. (4) Children who had early treatment had higher receptive and expressive language scores than children without early treatment. (5) After treatment, children who had less hearing losses had higher receptive and expressive language scores; the difference was not significant. (6) After treatment children who had better response to voice also had higher receptive and expressive language scores. (7) Before and after treatment, children whose parents had better communication abilities had slightly better lan-guage skills than children whose parents had lesser communication abilities. (8) After treatment, children whose parents had more interaction time with their children had better language skills than children whose parents had less interaction time.

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