# Early Communication Intervention for Toddlers with Hearing Loss

> **NIH NIH R01** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $768,741

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 While children with hearing (HL) are experiencing greater gains in spoken language than ever before,
considerable variability exists and many children with HL continue to have poorer language skills than their
hearing peers. Critical to reducing this variability is the identification of: (a) effective early communication
interventions for children with HL and (b) child and parent characteristics that influence intervention outcomes
(moderators and mediators). However, to date, only the pilot study for this proposed study has directly
examined the effects of an early communication intervention for children with HL within the context of a
randomized clinical trial. The overarching goals of the proposed study are to: (a) evaluate the effects of
teaching parents to use communication support strategies on child communication outcomes and (b) examine
parent and child characteristics that moderate and mediate intervention outcomes. The central hypothesis is
that systematic parent training will result in greater parental use of communication support strategies, greater
child prelinguistic behaviors, and greater child spoken language outcomes. The specific aims include: (a)
comparing parent use of communication support strategies and child prelinguistic outcomes between
intervention and control groups during and immediately following intervention, (b) examining parent
(communicative insightfulness) and child (sensitivity to social contingency; attention to spoken language)
moderators of intervention outcomes; (c) comparing parent use of communication support strategies and child
spoken language outcomes between intervention and control groups after intervention (from 18 and 36 months
of age); and (d) examining parent (use of communication support strategies) and child (prelinguistic skills)
mediators of intervention outcomes. The proposed study will enroll 96 children with mild to profound bilateral
hearing loss. Children will enroll in the study around 12 months of age and will be randomly assigned to either
a parent-implemented communication intervention (PICT) or a control group. Children in both groups will be
assessed: (a) at 12 months of age (immediately before intervention), (b) at 18 months of age (immediately after
intervention), and (c) at 36 months of age (18 months after the end of intervention). Children in the intervention
group will receive weekly, 1-hour intervention sessions for 6-months that: (a) are delivered during an important
prelinguistic period of language development, (b) incorporate visual, interactive, responsive, and linguistically
stimulating communication support strategies that are associated with stronger language skills in children with
HL, and (c) include systematic parent training found to be effective in teaching parents to use communication
support skills in children with language delays. The proposed research is significant because effective early
communication intervention is likely to reduce persist...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9846220
- **Project number:** 5R01DC016877-02
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Megan Y Roberts
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $768,741
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-03-01 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9846220

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9846220, Early Communication Intervention for Toddlers with Hearing Loss (5R01DC016877-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9846220. Licensed CC0.

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