A single-arm early efficacy study: Narrative-based language intervention for children with sensorineural hearing loss

ABSTRACT

In this study, a narrative-based language intervention (NBLI) is evaluated in children with HL based on selected narrative outcome measures important for telling and retelling stories. Nine Danish children with slight to severe sensorineural HL in the age range of 4;11–8;8 years participated. The study had a single-arm early efficacy design. The NBLI consisted of four parts: (1) warm-up activity, (2) story retell-imitation task, (3) story-generation task, (4) repeated retellings. The NBLI entailed one session (50 min) a week for 6 weeks and targeted syntax and narrative story content and form. The following outcome measurements were included: Narrative Quality and Number of Different Words. Furthermore, a parental questionnaire administered three times (week 1, 3 and 6) was presented to monitor the outcome between sessions. The group of children with HL had a statistically significant gain in the test scores for Narrative Quality and Number of Different Words. This NBLI approach is interesting to investigate further in the future for a larger group of children with HL.

KEYWORDS:

• Narrative-based language intervention
• children
• hearing loss

Data availability statement

For information on the data underlying this study please contact the corresponding author.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the children and parents participating and to the master graduate students (Laura Christoffersen, Maria Helms, and Signe Øyaas Bentsen) for helping with the data collection.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by GN Store Nord Foundation [no grant number]; and William Demant Foundation [20-2440]. Furthermore, GN Store Nord Foundation has also provided new support so new illustrations for ‘Story Retell-Imitation Task’ and ‘Story-Generating Task’ are developed and can be used for future NBLI programmes. These illustrations are available as a Zip-file free of charge from the end 2022 on the following website: https://www.sdu.dk/da/forskning/c_cll/aktiviteter/produkter.

Notes on contributors

Annette Esbensen

Annette Esbensen received her PhD in Audiologopedics from University of Southern Denmark, Denmark, and is currently assistant professor at University of Southern Denmark. Her research interests include children with hearing impairment and language learning difficulties (Developmental Language Disorder).

Emily Grenner

Emily Grenner received her PhD in Logopedics from Lunds University, Sweden, and is currently lecturer at Lunds University. Her research interests include children with hearing impairment, writing/reading, and speech and language pathology.