Home-based Early Intervention on Auditory and Speech Development in Mandarin-speaking Deaf Infants and Toddlers with Chronological Aged 7-24 Months.
BACKGROUND
Early auditory and speech development in home-based early intervention of infants and toddlers with hearing loss younger than 2 years are still spare in China. This study aimed to observe the development of auditory and speech in deaf infants and toddlers who were fitted with hearing aids and/or received cochlear implantation between the chronological ages of 7-24 months, and analyze the effect of chronological age and recovery time on auditory and speech development in the course of home-based early intervention.


METHODS
This longitudinal study included 55 hearing impaired children with severe and profound binaural deafness, who were divided into Group A (7-12 months), Group B (13-18 months) and Group C (19-24 months) based on the chronological age. Categories auditory performance (CAP) and speech intelligibility rating scale (SIR) were used to evaluate auditory and speech development at baseline and 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months of habilitation. Descriptive statistics were used to describe demographic features and were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance.


RESULTS
With 24 months of hearing intervention, 78% of the patients were able to understand common phrases and conversation without lip-reading, 96% of the patients were intelligible to a listener. In three groups, children showed the rapid growth of trend features in each period of habilitation. CAP and SIR scores have developed rapidly within 24 months after fitted auxiliary device in Group A, which performed much better auditory and speech abilities than Group B (P < 0.05) and Group C (P < 0.05). Group B achieved better results than Group C, whereas no significant differences were observed between Group B and Group C (P > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The data suggested the early hearing intervention and home-based habilitation benefit auditory and speech development. Chronological age and recovery time may be major factors for aural verbal outcomes in hearing impaired children. The development of auditory and speech in hearing impaired children may be relatively crucial in thefirst year's habilitation after fitted with the auxiliary device.
Ying
Y
Yang
Yue-Hui
YH
Liu
Ming-Fu
MF
Fu
Chun-Lin
CL
Li
Li-Yan
LY
Wang
Qi
Q
Wang
Key Laboratory of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Ministry of Education, Department of Speech and Hearing Rehabilitation Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062; Department of Audiology Center, China Rehabilitation Research Center for Deaf Children, Beijing 100029, China.
Xi-Bin
XB
Sun
D000367:Age Factors; D044466:Asian People; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational / Q000379:methods*; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008137:Longitudinal Studies