Training Language and Literacy for Children Who Use CIs

Florida State University

Status

Completed

Conditions

Hearing Loss, Sensorineural

Treatments

Behavioral: Phonological Awareness

Behavioral: Working Memory

Behavioral: Phonological Awareness + Working Memory

Behavioral: Active Control

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT03582566

037312

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of computer games to improve language and literacy outcomes for children who have hearing loss. Children will be assigned to one of four conditions: phonological awareness training, working memory training, phonological awareness + working memory training, or active control.

Full description

Both phonological awareness and working memory are known to be important for children's language and literacy learning. Though there are computer games that claim to improve phonological awareness and working memory, it is unknown if these games will improve language and literacy skills for children who have hearing loss.

The investigators will first determine if the games are effective for improving language and phonological awareness in children with hearing loss relative to an active control condition. Secondly, the investigators will determine if gains in phonological awareness and working memory translate into gains in language and literacy skills relative to active control.

Enrollment

87 patients

Sex

All

Ages

5 to 7 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Prelingual hearing loss
Use of amplification device (hearing aid and/or cochlear implant) for at least one year
Able to visit the clinic 3x/week for 12 weeks

Exclusion criteria

No developmental delays (Down's syndrome, Autism spectrum disorder)

Trial design

Primary purpose

Treatment

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Factorial Assignment

Masking

Single Blind

87 participants in 4 patient groups

Phonological Awareness

Experimental group

Description:

Children will play games to practice their rhyming, sound sequencing, and letter-sound knowledge. These games are all implemented in the Earobics program.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Phonological Awareness

Working Memory

Experimental group

Description:

Children will play games designed to help them hold and manipulate objects in memory. These games are implemented in Cogmed.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Working Memory

Phonological Awareness + Working Memory

Experimental group

Description:

Children will practice both their sound skills (Earobics) and their memory skills (Cogmed).