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

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

Samband mellan arbetsminnet och skrivprocessen hos normalspråkiga barn i åldern tio till tolv år

Syftet med studien var att undersöka sambanden mellan arbetsminne och förmåga till skriftligt berättande. Flera språkliga fånnågor som krävs får skrivande har i tidigare studier visat sig ha samband med arbetsminneskapacitet Skrivande är en uppgift som kräver många samtidiga språkliga processer. Detta arbete syftar till att närmare utreda vilka samband som finns mellan arbetsmirmet och dessa språkliga fårn1ågor. För att göra detta har olika synsätt på arbetsminnet beaktats. En grupp normalspråkiga l 0- och 11-åriga barn fick göra ett antal test som prövade komplext arbetsmi1me, fonologiskt arbetsmi1me, språkförståelse, läsförståelse och ordavkodningsfårmåga. Testdeltagama berättade även muntligt och skriftligt. Testresultaten och berättelserna analyserades och jämfördes. Analyserna visade att det farms vissa samband mellan arbetsminne och några av de språkliga förmågor som används vid skriftligt berättande, blandarmat lexikal variation som är ett mått på hur varierat ordfårråd som används. Fömtom att utgöra ett referensmaterial med data från normalspråkiga barn kan studien så småningomleda till tidigare identifiering av barn med läs- och skrivsvårigheter

Predictors of narrative text quality in students with hearing loss

Aim: Students with hearing loss (HL) often fall behind hearing peers in complex language tasks such as narrative writing. This study explored the effects of school grade, gender, cognitive and linguistic predisposition and audiological factors on narrative text quality in this target group.Method: Eleven students with HL in Grades 5–6 and 7–8 (age 12–15) who took part in a writing intervention wrote four narrative texts over six months. A trained panel rated text quality. The effects of the students' working memory capacity, language comprehension, reading comprehension, school grade and gender and the intervention were analyzed as a mixed-effects regression model. Audiological factors were considered separately.Results: The analysis showed that throughout the period, texts written by female students in Grade 7–8 received the highest text quality ratings, while those written by male students in Grade 7-8 received the lowest ratings. There was no effect of the intervention, or of the linguistic and cognitive measures. The students with the lowest text quality ratings received amplification later than those with high ratings, but HL severity was not associated with text quality.Conclusion: Hearing loss severity was not a decisive factor in narrative text quality. The intervention which the students took part in is potentially effective, with some adaptation to the special needs of students with HL. The strong gender effects are discussed