[The efficacy of early intervention for infants and toddlers with hearing loss]

To investigate the efficacy of early intervention on language, pronunciation and cognitive developments of infants and toddlers with hearing loss and to build up an early intervention model.

Fifty-six children with moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss aged 10 months to 2 years were divided into two groups. 20 children, aged 10 months to 2 years, received early intervention services after wearing hearing aids for 6 - 18 months, and 36 children, aged 11 months to 2 years, didn't receive any intervention. The type and degree of hearing loss were measured by a series of auditory tests. Language and cognitive developments of the children with hearing loss and 28 age, and sex-matched children with normal hearing, aged 10 to 23 months, were evaluated by the Gesell developmental schedules. The results were expressed as developmental quotient (DQ). Pronunciation test in mandarin Chinese was adopted to evaluate the speech development of the 56 children with hearing loss.

(1) The language DQ according the Gesell developmental schedules of the children with hearing loss who received early intervention was (92.25 +/- 17.32), significantly higher than those children with hearing loss who didn't receive intervention (70.44 +/- 29.99, P = 0.00), whish was significantly lower than that of the normal hearing children (P = 0.00). However, there was no significant difference in language DQ between the children who received early intervention and the normal hearing children. There was no significant correlation between the degree of hearing loss and language DQ in the children who received early intervention (P = 0.27). (2) The personal-social developmental quotient (DQ) of the children who received intervention was (101.40 +/- 7.66), significantly higher than that of the children who didn't receive intervention (83.94 +/- 22.09, P = 0.00), that were significantly lower than that of the children with normal hearing (P = 0.00). However, there were no significant difference in the personal-social DQ between the children who received early intervention and the children with normal hearing. No significant differences in the gross motor ability, fine motor ability and adaptive ability were observed between the two groups of children with hearing loss and normal hearing children. (3) The consonant pronunciation of the children with moderate to severe hearing loss who received early intervention was normal. Among those children only one case with profound hearing loss had/d/error. The consonant pronunciation of the children with moderate hearing loss who didn't receive early intervention of those was normal. One case with moderate-severe hearing loss and one case with severe hearing loss had/d/errors. Six cases with profound hearing loss had/d, m/errors. The tone of the children with moderate to severe hearing loss who received early intervention was normal. Three cases with profound hearing loss exhibited tone errors. Among the children who didn't receive early intervention, tone errors were found in two cases with moderate hearing loss, one case with moderate-severe hearing loss, one case with severe hearing loss, and twelve cases with profound hearing loss showed.

The language, pronunciation and cognitive developments of the children who don't receive early intervention are significantly lower than those of the children with normal hearing. Early intervention can significantly improve the language, speech and cognitive abilities of children with hearing loss.