Combined Gestures and Auditory-Verbal Training for Comprehension and Production of Verbs in Deaf Children

Abstract

Objective: An important factor determining the efficacy of speech therapy for children with severe hearing loss is the type and the method of educating children in the use of speech language items. Given the shortage of golden time for language learning, it is necessary to use efficient speech therapy approaches for improving the language of the child. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of adding gestures to auditory-verbal training (AVT) in speech therapy for children with severe hearing loss. Methods: In this double-blinded clinical trial, 66 children with severe hearing loss were randomly assigned to two groups of 33 subjects. Receptive and expressive language competence for some simple Persian verbs was evaluated by the Newsha test. The AVT was accompanied by gesture for the intervention group and no accompanying gesture for the control group. Simple verbs include fifty early action words such as sit, run, hold, and go. Results: In both the experimental and control groups, a significant difference was observed for receptive language of simple verbs before and after the intervention (P = 0.001, P = 0.045). However, no significant difference was found before the intervention (P = 0.532), there was a significant difference between mean receptive score of the two groups after the intervention (P = 0.032). Conclusion: Adding gestures to AVT significantly changed the mean expressive score in 2-3-year-old children with severe hearing loss. But, both the synthetic approach and the AVT had the same degree of positive effect for education of receptive language of simple verbs for these children.