In Support of a Public Health Approach to Late Talking

Abstract

Purpose: This study examined the effectiveness of Caregivers Optimizing Achievement of Children With Hearing Loss (COACH), an intervention in which parents were taught naturalistic interaction strategies that addressed the unique linguistic input needs of their young children with hearing loss. Method: A single-subject multiple-baseline across-behaviors design was used with four caregiver-child dyads to determine the effects of COACH training on caregivers’ use of the COACH language facilitation strategies and on their children’s language abilities. Results: A functional relation was demonstrated between teaching of strategies and caregivers’ use of the strategies across three dyads with slower, consistent changes observed in a fourth dyad. Improvements in children’s use of target[1]level language were observed for children in three dyads. Conclusions: Caregivers were able to implement COACH language facilitation strategies, although the pace of caregivers’ learning differed across dyads. Caregivers reported high satisfaction with participating in the intervention. Future research using a randomized design and a longer intervention condition is needed for a more complete assessment of the effects of the intervention on children’s language abilities.