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. Multisensory stimuli and traditional children's stories have been used in speech and language therapy to promote vocabulary development in children experiencing languagelearning 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.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Vocabulary Interventions for Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children and Adolescents

“…However, contrary to the thought that DHH children benefit more from visual complementary stimuli, a single-subject study by McDaniel et al (2018) comparing audiovisual stimuli as an aid to vocabulary learning in contrast to only audios for three deaf preschool children did not find a difference between learning rates across conditions. However, Hettiarachchi et al (2021) found that a multisensory approach with sign language during the vocabulary intervention was effective for DHH children between 5 and 7 years of age in another single-subject study. The contradictory results between two different visual modalities (audiovisual and signed) are intriguing (Hettiarachchi et al, 2021;McDaniel et al, 2018).…”

“…However, Hettiarachchi et al (2021) found that a multisensory approach with sign language during the vocabulary intervention was effective for DHH children between 5 and 7 years of age in another single-subject study. The contradictory results between two different visual modalities (audiovisual and signed) are intriguing (Hettiarachchi et al, 2021;McDaniel et al, 2018).…”

“…Just as in the single-subject study by Antia et al (2021), the group studies in this review also show that it is a useful approach. However, the instruction still needs to be consolidated with more than one sensory input to be effective, as is evident from the single-case study by Hettiarachchi et al (2021) and those we included (Robertson et al, 2017;Walker & McGregor, 2013;Zamani et al, 2016) where auditory and visual stimuli were combined. Our results across outcomes contrast with the single-subject study by McDaniel et al (2018), where no significant difference was found between the vocabulary learning rates of DHH children when they received audiovisual versus audio-only instruction.…”

Multisensory Approach in Speech Therapy for Preschool Children

“…In teaching hard-of-hearing and deaf children, the main focus is on the fact that sign language is used in these children's families, that significantly affects language competence. The use of a multisensory approach significantly reduces delayed language skills, hard-of-hearing and deaf children bevefit from this approach (Hettiarachchi, Ranaweera & Disanayake, 2021). Saratikjan talks about shy children and children with autism spectrum disorders.…”

The effect of Adlerian play therapy on the alexithymia and social isolation of deaf students.

“…These difficulties are often attributed to delays in their spoken language (Hoffman et al, 2015). Also, the lack of verbal communication between parents and deaf children in the early years causes many of these children to be late for school (Hettiarachchi et al, 2021). On the other hand, poor development of emotional and social skills of deaf children is one of the problems that prevent them from gaining academic and linguistic abilities (Luckner & Movahedazarhouligh, 2019).…”