# Family Processes in Developmental Outcomes of Pediatric Hearing Loss

> **NIH NIH R01** · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $586,719

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
This revised application requests support for a new program of research on the influence of family
processes on core developmental outcomes in children with hearing loss. Despite widely available
technology to identify hearing loss as early as the first week of life and significant signal processing
advancements in hearing aids and cochlear implants, enormous individual differences still remain in the
degree to which children fully benefit from these medical interventions. A critical barrier to achieving optimal
outcomes and developing new interventions is a lack of knowledge and understanding of the relevant
contributing factors and mechanisms that affect variability in developmental outcomes in children with
hearing loss. Extending the work on typically developing children and other clinical populations, emerging
research suggests that a potent, yet ignored source of variance - the family environment - contributes to
outcomes in children with hearing loss. However, the extent of these associations, their underlying
developmental mechanisms, and how they differ from families of children with normal hearing are unknown.
This significant knowledge gap will be addressed in the proposed study, which will use a multi-source
(parent, child, and teacher), multi-trait (questionnaires, direct observation, and child and caregiver
performance measures) longitudinal research design to measure 3- to 8-year-old normal-hearing and
hearing-impaired children's spoken language and executive function development over two years and
investigate the most relevant family factors in cognitive and linguistic development at the same time points
to uncover the family mechanisms linking hearing loss risk to these core developmental outcomes. The
specific aims of the proposed research are to: 1) identify differences in family environment and parenting
factors in families of young children with different hearing histories; and 2) to uncover the developmental
mechanisms through which family and parenting factors influence spoken language and executive function
development in children with hearing loss in early childhood. Our findings will be significant for development
of understanding and explaining the contributing role of hearing, speech perception and family dynamics in
the children's development of language and executive function. Our findings also will be clinically significant
by providing new, requisite, foundational knowledge that will guide the design of future intervention studies
by identifying not only which family environment constructs are related to at-risk outcomes, but also their
mechanisms of action. In future intervention studies, novel treatments that target known aspects of family
environment responsible for protecting from or exacerbating cumulative risk to spoken language and
executive function competence in children with hearing loss will fundamentally change current models of
intervention for pediatric hearing loss.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9979830
- **Project number:** 5R01DC014956-05
- **Recipient organization:** OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Rachael Frush Holt
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $586,719
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-08-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9979830

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9979830, Family Processes in Developmental Outcomes of Pediatric Hearing Loss (5R01DC014956-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9979830. Licensed CC0.

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