Effects of Early Intervention on Hearing Impaired Children

A longitudinal study was conducted of 118 children with severe and profound hearing losses-Children were first tested when they were between 3 and 5 years and again in 3 or 4 years, using measures of receptive and expressive spoken language, receptive language in the child's primary educational modality, receptive and expressive mother-child communication, and social development. A multivariate design was used to investigate the effects of age of intervention, program intensity, and parent instruction on the children's linguistic and social development. Early intervention was associated with higher receptive language scores in the first, but not in the final year. Age of intervention was not related to any other language measure or the measure of social development. Consistent effects were not associated with program intensity or parent instruction.