The research team has been busy at work, compiling and reviewing a variety of articles on different topics. Here is a short monthly summary of three recent articles on bilingual intervention for children with hearing loss. References provided in case our readers wish to check out their libraries :-)
Happy Reading!
Jessica and Nicole
Articles
1. Dual language versus English-only support for bilingual children with hearing loss who use cochlear implants and hearing aids. (Bunta et al, 2016)
This study investigates the effects of providing support in Spanish & English as compared to individuals who only receive support in English. (The number of bilingual individuals receiving CIs and HAs has been rapidly increasing. Hispanic children demonstrate a higher prevalence of hearing loss than the general population in the US.)
They used retrospective analyses of language for two groups of bilingual children with CIs and HAs that all matched on different variables except for the language support they received services in.
Individuals who received dual support outperform their peers through total language and expressive communication.
Population(s) Used: 20 Spanish and English speaking children from the US who used CIs, HAs or both. All of the children were implanted before the age of 5. Each group also had an even distribution of gender, five boys and five girls
2. The Effects of Dual-Language Support on the Language Skills of Bilingual Children With Hearing Loss Who Use Listening Devices Relative to Their Monolingual Peers (Bunta et al, 2013)
This study investigates the effects of supporting English & Spanish on language outcomes in bilingual children with hearing loss who use CIs or HAs.
English language skills of bilingual children were compared to their monolingual English speaking peers
Population(s) Used: 40 children with HL (20 bilingual Spanish-English, 20 monolingual English)
English language skills of bilingual participants were equivalent to their monolingual peers on Auditory Comp, Expressive Communication & total language scores from the preschool language scale.
3. Evidence-Based Intervention for Learners Who Are Deaf and/or Multilingual: A Systematic Review (Crowe & Guiberson, 2019)
This article reviews interventions for speech, language, and literacy used with Deaf and/or Hard-of-Hearing multilingual learners (DML). Monolingual DHH and hearing bilingual learners are also included due to the very limited research on the DML population.
The Council for Exceptional Children's 2014 standards was used to evaluate identified interventions.
Only two studies for the DML population were identified and neither met criteria for evidence-based interventions. Thus, interventions identified as promising for monolingual DHH and hearing bilingual learners were recommended for use with the DML population.
The interventions identified as promising included Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies, reading mastery and corrective reading, informed vocabulary instructional strategies, language workshop, code-oriented intervention, and explicit vocabulary versus explicit vocabulary and spelling.
References
Bunta, F., Douglas, M., Dickson, H., Cantu, A., Wickesberg, J., & Gifford, R. H. (2016). Dual language versus English only support for bilingual children with hearing loss who use cochlear implants and hearing aids. International Journal Language Communication Disorders, 51(4): 460-472. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.12223.
Bunta, F. & Douglas, M. (2012). The effects of dual-language support on the language skills of bilingual children with hearing loss who use listening devices relative to their monolingual peers. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 44: 281-290. doi: 1-.1044/0161-1461(2013/12-0073).
Crowe, K. & Guiberson, M. (2019). Evidence-based interventions for learners who are Deaf and/or multilingual: A systematic quality review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 28: 964-283. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJSLP-IDLL-19-0003.
