A systematic scoping review of early interventions for parents of deaf infants

Abstract

Background Over 90% of the 50,000 deaf children in the UK have hearing parents, many of whom were not expecting a deaf child and may require specialist support. Deaf children can experience poorer long-term outcomes than hearing children across a range of domains. After early detection by the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Programme, parents in the UK receive support from Qualified Teachers of the Deaf and audiologists but resources are tight and intervention support can vary by locality. There are challenges faced due to a lack of clarity around what specific parenting support interventions are most helpful. Methods The aim of this research was to complete a systematic scoping review of the evidence to identify early support interventions for parents of deaf infants. From 5577 identified records, 54 met inclusion criteria. Two reviewers screened papers through three rounds before completing data extraction and quality assessment. Results Identified parent support interventions included both group and individual sessions in various settings (including online). They were led by a range of professionals and targeted various outcomes. Internationally there were only five randomised controlled trials. Other designs included non-randomised comparison groups, pre / post and other designs e.g. longitudinal, qualitative and case studies. Quality assessment showed few high quality studies with most having some concerns over risk of bias. Conclusion Interventions commonly focused on infant language and communication followed by parental knowledge and skills; parent wellbeing and empowerment; and parent/child relationship. There were no interventions that focused specifically on parent support to understand or nurture child socio-emotional development despite this being a well-established area of poor outcome for deaf children. There were few UK studies and research generally was not of high quality. Many studies were not recent and so not in the context of recent healthcare advances. Further research in this area is urgently needed to help develop evidence based early interventions.

Assessing a Video-Based Intervention to Promote Parent Communication Strategies with a Deaf Infant: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study

“…Interventions that train parents to modify behaviors and implement specific strategies to support interaction have been shown to be effective [32][33][34][35]. This approach is in line with the international consensus statement of best practice for early intervention for deaf children [36], which places emphasis on promoting parents' skills so that they are the positive agents of change in their child's language development.…”

“…However, many practitioners do not follow one formal parent support intervention but instead 'cherry-pick' strategies based on individual needs and family choices [37]. Although this needs-led approach is an important aspect of family-centered support, a lack of universal provision can lead to inconsistences in the support children with similar needs receive [32]. A more standardized but tailorable composite intervention might be useful for practitioners if the format and content were acceptable, and delivery was feasible and effective.…”

Systems that support hearing families with deaf children: A scoping review

“…A scoping review of early interventions for parents of deaf infants [ 56 ] found that interventions commonly focus on language, communication and parent knowledge, well-being and parent/child relationships and did not find any studies focusing on parent support to nurture socio-emotional development, which is often a poor outcome for deaf children. Socio-emotional development is not well-analysed by hearing professionals, who may not realise that it is not deafness that needs fixing but everything around it.…”

“…Socio-emotional development is not well-analysed by hearing professionals, who may not realise that it is not deafness that needs fixing but everything around it. It was concluded that research in this area is much needed, with most studies conducted some time ago and not in line with healthcare advances, recommending further research to develop evidence based early intervention [ 56 ]. A literature review of early intervention programme models and processes [ 57 ] identified five themes which were caregiver involvement, caregiver coaching, caregiver satisfaction, intervention program challenges and telehealth.…”

Emergency and Disaster Management, Preparedness, and Planning (EDMPP) and the ‘Social’: A Scoping Review

“…Our findings show that the human rights treatises "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities", "Convention on the Rights of the Child", "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women", "Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples", "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and the "International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination" are not used in the literature covered to enhance EDMPP processes and actions. It is known that a major challenge for any EDMPP is that different groups are impacted differently by emergencies and disasters [103,105,109,113,114,[135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142][143][144][145][146][147][148][149][150][272][273][274]. At the same time it is recognized that marginalized populations encounter many problems in relation to emergencies and disasters [104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121].…”