Tele-intervention for children with hearing loss: A comparative pilot study

Introduction: This pilot study compared tele-intervention to conventional intervention for children with hearing loss in terms of communication performance, parental perceptions and clinician perceptions. Methods: A within-subject design was employed, including 10 children with hearing loss and their parents who each received a structurally similar tele-intervention and conventional intervention session in a counterbalanced manner. Quality of communication performance was analysed using a modified Tait video analysis method. Parent and clinician perceptions were collected through rating-scale surveys and thematic analysis of qualitative responses. Results: No significant difference (p> 0.05) was found between tele-intervention and conventional intervention in terms of communication performance of children. Parent perceptions were not significantly different (p> 0.05) between conventional and tele-intervention in terms of facilitating meaningful communication interaction. Significant differences were evident for parents' comfort level during the session, whether they found it to be a beneficial experience and whether they would like to continue receiving intervention through this method. Clinician perceptions of conventional and tele-intervention were not significantly different (p> 0.05) and tele-intervention was deemed a valuable method of service delivery for clients. Discussion: This study provides preliminary evidence that tele-intervention is effective for communication intervention and can be a valuable solution to typical barriers such as distance and the shortage of trained interventionists.