Benefits of Parent Training in the Rehabilitation of Deaf or Hard of Hearing Children of Hearing Parents: A Systematic Review

Audiology Research

Giallini, I., Nicastri, M., et al. (2021).

Audiology Research, 11(4), 653-672.

This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the effect of including parent training and coaching in deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) rehabilitation programs on parental sensitivity, parental responsivity, and promotion of language development for DHH children.

No funding received

Not specified

Retrospective or prospective studies, randomized controlled trials, non-randomized controlled trials, and pre-post studies

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Findings demonstrated significant changes in parental communicative behaviors following deaf and heard of hearing (DHH) rehabilitation programs incorporating parental training and coaching. These effects included increasing mean length utterance, increased vocabulary use, increased use of communication promoting strategies, reducing the number of introductions of new topics without adequate introduction, reducing the number of interactions that neglect the child's current focus, and increasing the number of child-directed responses. Investigations regarding the maintenance of these effects were limited and mixed. Three of 4 studies investigating the impact of these interventions on DDH children's communication noted positive gains. These gains included a greater number of vocalizations and number of words produced, an increase in pre-linguistic speech skills, and higher scores on lexical and morpho-syntactic measures. One study noted no positive or negative change in children's communication following parental training programs. Risk of bias, small number of studies included, small sample size, and variable study quality resulted in limited evidence to support the use of parental training in this population. Further research is indicated.