The effectiveness of using multi-sensory children’s stories on vocabulary development in young deaf and hard-of-hearing children

ABSTRACT

Young deaf and hard-of-hearing children enrolling in school in Sri Lanka often display language delay due to limited amplification and limited language stimulation. The scarcity of speech and language therapy support within the educational context at present necessitates a rethink of service-delivery models to reach more children. Multi-sensory stimuli and traditional children’s stories have been used in speech and language therapy to promote vocabulary development in children experiencing language-learning difficulties. Fifteen deaf or hard-of-hearing children from three different educational contexts were offered a three week “Katha malu” multi-sensory children’s story programme through the class teacher. The programme focused on developing receptive and expressive vocabulary of a set of 30 target words. The programme was offered using a combination of Sri Lankan Sign Language and Spoken Sinhala. The participants' receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge on the target words was assessed using a specially devised picture-based vocabulary assessment pre- and post-intervention. The results show positive gains at both group and individual levels on receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. There was a positive effect of familiarity with the story with the overall vocabulary gains more prominent for the older, more traditional story. The findings of this study highlight the possibility of offering access to language stimulation programmes at classroom-level facilitated by the class teacher, under the guidance of a speech and language therapist.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education
• language facilitation
• engagement of children with adequate or inadequate amplification
• multi-sensory
• traditional stories

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Well-known theatre company for children with disabilities.

2 Not the participant’s real name. A pseudonym has been used to maintain confidentiality.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shyamani Hettiarachchi

Shyamani Hettiarachchi is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Disability Studies, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She is a speech and language therapist and dramatherapist by profession.

Mahishi Ranaweera

Mahishi Ranaweera is Senior Lecturer at the Department of English Language Teaching, Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

H. M. Lalani N. Disanayake

H. M. Lalani N. Disanayake is a Special Education Teacher at the Ceylon School for the Deaf and Blind, Ratmalana, Sri Lanka.