Audiology and Speech Pathology - Research Publications
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ItemTalking to Toddlers: Drawing on Mothers' Perceptions of Using Wearable and Mobile Technology in the Home(IOS PRESS, 2017)BACKGROUND: Mother-child interactions often give rise to opportunities for early language learning in the context of everyday life. Persuasive technology has the potential to influence maternal language behaviours in the home and promote mothers' active engagement in the development of their children's communication skills. AIM: This paper explored maternal perceptions regarding the use of a language tracking wearable (Language Environment Analysis; LENA) device and a parent education smartphone application in an 8-week trial with their young children. METHODS: Mother/child dyads were enrolled in a feasibility trial designed to obtain objective auditory and linguistic data from each child's naturalistic settings (Control Condition), provide feedback to mothers about their child's home language environment (LENA Feedback Condition), and to explore effectiveness of an app designed to promote meaningful parent/child interactions during daily routines (LENA Feedback and App Condition). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The majority of mothers (80%) who participated in the trial reported a preference for using the mobile app and/or LENA technology again. Maternal responses during this pilot informed the design of an ongoing, prospective language intervention study for parents and their young children with significant hearing loss.
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ItemLong term communication outcomes for children receiving cochlear implants younger than 12 months: A multi-centre study(Wolters Kluwer, 2017)Objective: Examine the influence of age at implant on speech perception, language and speech production outcomes in a large unselected paediatric cohort. Study Design: This study pools available assessment data (collected prospectively and entered into respective databases from 1990 to 2014) from three Australian centres. Patients: Children (N=403) with congenital bilateral severe to profound hearing loss who received cochlear implants under 6 years of age (excluding those with acquired onset of profound hearing loss after 12 months, those with progressive hearing loss and those with mild/moderate/severe additional cognitive delay/disability). Main Outcome Measure(s): Speech Perception; open-set words (scored for words and phonemes correct) and sentence understanding at school entry and late primary school time points. Language; PLS and PPVT standard score equivalents at school entry, CELF standard scores. Speech Production; DEAP percentage accuracy of vowels, consonants, phonemes-total and clusters and percentage word-intelligibility at school entry. Results: Regression analysis indicated a significant effect for age-at-implant for all outcome measures. Cognitive skills also accounted for significant variance in all outcome measures except open-set phoneme scores. ANOVA with Tukey pairwise comparisons examined group differences for children implanted younger than 12 months (Group 1), between 13 and 18 months (Group 2), between 19 and 24 months (Group 3), between 25 and 42 months (Group 4), and between 43 to 72 months (Group 5). Open-set speech perception scores for Groups 1, 2 and 3 were significantly higher than Groups 4 and 5. Language standard scores for Group 1 were significantly higher than Groups 2, 3, 4 and 5. Speech production outcomes for Group 1 were significantly higher than scores obtained for Groups 2, 3, and 4 combined. Cross tabulation and Chi-square tests supported the hypothesis that a greater percentage of Group 1 children (than Groups 2, 3, 4, or 5) demonstrated language performance within the normative range by school entry. Conclusions: Results support provision of cochlear implants younger than 12 months of age for children with severe to profound hearing loss to optimise speech perception and subsequent language acquisition and speech production accuracy.
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ItemBarriers to early cochlear implantation(TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2016)OBJECTIVE: Identify variables associated with paediatric access to cochlear implants (CIs). DESIGN: Part 1. Trends over time for age at CI surgery (N = 802) and age at hearing aid (HA) fitting (n = 487) were examined with regard to periods before, during, and after newborn hearing screening (NHS). Part 2. Demographic factors were explored for 417 children implanted under 3 years of age. Part 3. Pre-implant steps for the first 20 children to receive CIs under 12 months were examined. RESULTS: Part 1. Age at HA fitting and CI surgery reduced over time, and were associated with NHS implementation. Part 2. For children implanted under 3 years, earlier age at HA fitting and higher family socio-economic status were associated with earlier CI. Progressive hearing loss was associated with later CIs. Children with a Connexin 26 diagnosis received CIs earlier than children with a premature / low birth weight history. Part 3. The longest pre-CI steps were Step 1: Birth to diagnosis/identification of hearing loss (mean 16.43 weeks), and Step 11: MRI scans to implant surgery (mean 15.05 weeks) for the first 20 infants with CIs under 12 months. CONCLUSION: NHS implementation was associated with reductions in age at device intervention in this cohort.