Increasing Word Learning Efficiency in Children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing through Retrieval Practice

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Project Summary Despite decades of attempts to “close the gap” between spoken language skills of children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and their hearing peers, this goal remains elusive. Reduced audibility and delays in identification and amplification hamper spoken language development of children who are DHH. To “catch up,” their language learning rate must outpace that of typical development. However, they often exhibit slower, not faster, language acquisition rates and require more exposures to learn words than their hearing peers. Thus, children who are DHH need effective and efficient interventions to achieve the trajectory required to reach age expected language skills and improve their long-term educational and vocational outcomes. Retrieval practice, which is prominent in cognitive psychology but less dependably applied to education and even less so to special education, is an empirically validated approach that could improve the language learning of children who are DHH. Retrieval practice is hypothesized to improve learning by enhancing the value of word presentations and countering the need for extra word exposures relative to hearing peers. To advance the promising yet underutilized research on retrieval practice, we complete the next logical step of evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of two key retrieval practice features: feedback (Aim 1) and spacing (Aim 2). Feedback is predicted to result in more efficient learning because it focuses attention on unmastered material, prevents the illusion of success, and reduces repeated errors. Spacing trials are predicted to result in more efficient learning than massed trials because they require more effort with fewer cues provided. Study innovations include the critical evaluation of retention and use of a multi-session intervention context. We will accomplish these aims through four single case adapted alternating treatments design studies with sixteen 5-8 year old children who are DHH. Four children complete each contrast of conditions to isolate the effects of feedback and spacing. Results via visual analysis and effect sizes will reveal the degree to which retrieval practice is expected to support word learning for children who are DHH and whether learning is enhanced by the inclusion of feedback and spaced teaching trials. This knowledge could have broad implications for maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of word learning interventions in the short-term and more comprehensive language interventions in the long-term for children who are DHH. Next steps will address (a) evaluating the effects and possible mechanisms of retrieval practice that combines the most effective intervention features and (b) identifying child characteristics that mediate and moderate intervention effects in a randomized control trial. Future studies will expand retrieval practice to other language areas and the modality of sign language. This work would advance the field, which exhibits a dearth of rigorous intervention research, despite the important, long-standing challenge of improving language skills and subsequent educational and vocational outcomes of children who are DHH.