Parent interaction course in order to enhance communication skills between parents and children following pediatric cochlear implantation

Objective: To assess the effect of a parent interaction training course on the communication skills of parents of young implanted children. The training course was designed to help parents to be less controlling in their interactions with their deaf children and to facilitate the development of spoken language. Study design: Prospective study comparing the communication skills of parents of deaf children fitted with cochlear implants before and after a parent interaction training course. Setting: Pediatric tertiary referral center for cochlear implantation. Methods: Video samples were taken of parents interacting with their children 1 month before the course (ranging from 15 days to 2 months) and after the course (ranging from 15 days to 1 month). Video samples were then transcribed orthographically and parents' turns in the interaction were assigned to one of two categories: (a) initiations-the parent initiates conversation or introduces a new topic and (b) responses-the parent responds to the child's previous turn. 12 months after completion of the course, the process was repeated in order to establish the relative permanence of changes in behavior. Hypothesis: The parents' turns would shift from a predominance of initiations to a predominance of responses as a result of attendance on the course. This would demonstrate that the parents were less controlling of their children in communication and were exhibiting more contingent behavior-responding to their child's initiations rather than expecting the child to respond to theirs. Patients: The study involved 17 parents of 11 implanted children. The mean age at implantation was 4 years (range: 2.2-6.3 years). The implant experience of the children ranged from 2 to 23 months at the time of the study. All children used total communication. Results: The post-course initiations were half those of the pre-course ones (median from 14 decreased to 7) and the responses were almost double following the course (median from 8 increased to 14). Both differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). 12 months after the course, the responses score remained high with a median score of 16.5. However, a slight but significant increase in the initiation scores was also noted (median from 7 to 8.5). Parental satisfaction of the course was found to be high as no families failed to attend on any of the occasions despite the great distances some of them had to travel. Conclusion: The format of the parent interaction training course was found to be highly acceptable to the parents and the components covered proved to be effective in promoting positive changes in parental communication behavior. Clinicians need to provide a responsive environment for implanted deaf children and help others to do the same. The training course provided a very useful forum to share insights and skills and to evaluate ways of enhancing the communication between parents and children following cochlear implantation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.