Assessing a Video-Based Intervention to Promote Parent Communication Strategies with a Deaf Infant: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study

Ciara Kelly; Ellen Crawford; Gary Morgan; Danielle Matthews

doi:10.3390/jcm11185272

Assessing a Video-Based Intervention to Promote Parent Communication Strategies with a Deaf Infant: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study

J Clin Med. 2022 Sep 7;11(18):5272. doi: 10.3390/jcm11185272.

Authors

Ciara Kelly¹, Ellen Crawford², Gary Morgan³, Danielle Matthews⁴

Affiliations

¹ Division of Human Communication, Development and Hearing, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
² The Oxford Centre for Psychological Health, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK.
³ Department of Language and Communication Science, City, University of London, London EC1V 0HB, UK.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 2LT, UK.

Abstract

Infant-parent interaction forms the foundation for language learning. For the majority of deaf infants, hearing loss can impact access to, and the quality of communicative interactions, placing language development at risk. Support for families to meet the challenges faced during interaction is highly variable in the United Kingdom. In a step towards more standardized but tailorable family support, we co-produced an instructional, video-based intervention, testing for feasibility in terms of behavior change in seven communicative strategies and acceptability with 9 parents, forming study 1. Parents increased their use of the majority of behaviors and found content and delivery acceptable. However, further development was required to: (a) support use of semantically contingent talk and attention getting strategies to elicit infant attention, and (b) ensure the information was provided in a bite-size format that could be tailored to individual families. In study 2, the intervention was refined based on findings from study 1 and assessed for acceptability with 9 parents and 17 professionals, who reported similar high acceptability scores. Final refinements and modifications could be addressed in future interventions. The current studies provide a positive early step towards a standardized intervention to support communication that could be used in routine practice.

Keywords: deaf; hard of hearing; hearing loss; infant; infant–parent interaction; intervention.

Grants and funding

Study 1 of this research was funded by a University of Sheffield scholarship and Funds for Women Graduates’ Foundation Main Grant awarded to Ciara Kelly. Study 2 was funded by an Alan Kelly Legacy to the University of Sheffield. Danielle Matthews was funded by the British Academy, grant number MD\170025. Ciara Kelly was supported by NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre.