Effectiveness of the interventional program for empowering mothers with hearing-impaired children for the improvement of expressive language skills

Family-centered care demands family to be accepted as the primary core of all cares neglected in practice. The purpose of the study was to plan and put into effect a family-centered interventional training program for the empowerment of mothers while examining its effectiveness on the expressive language skill of children with hearing impairment.

The sampling method in this process was a randomized controlled trial of the available type. The samples were selected from the people who referred to the centers providing speech therapy services to hearing impaired children in Shiraz (Iran). By selecting random blocks, 35 people were placed in each intervention and control groups. Family-centered intervention was scheduled into 6 sessions, each session lasting 80 minutes. Meantime, we used a researcher-made questionnaire and Newsha developmental scale to assess mothers' empowerment and children's speech development, respectively.

Data gathered from 35 intervention and 33 control group members were carefully examined. Repeated measurement test used for the assessment of primary and interactional effects of “time” and “group” showed the effect of time (i.e. pretest, posttest, and follow-up) on the variables of “awareness”, which was significantly large. As for the "self-efficacy" variable, the triple time stages have also proved effective. Time and interaction both manifested a meaningful effect on "child's expressive language skills" (P<0.001). However, "self-esteem" skills and "perceived support" did not show significant differences between time and group effects (P>0.001).

The study wraps up by affirming the role of family-centered intervention programs in expanding the ability of mothers with hearing-impaired children and, consequently, upgrading the expressive language skill of the child.