Project ASPIRE Efficacy Pilot: Achieving Superior Parental Involvement for Rehabilitative Excellence

University of Chicago41 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of the proposed exploratory research protocol is to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of Project ASPIRE, a parent-directed intervention aiming to increase parental skills and enrich children's early language environments and ultimately improve child outcomes in children with hearing loss from low-income backgrounds.

We will test the curriculum's efficacy in increasing parental knowledge and skills with a pilot study funded by a U.S. Department of Education Institute for Education Sciences Goal 2 grant. We hypothesize that parents who complete the ASPIRE curriculum with an Early Intervention therapist will demonstrate enhanced understanding of their child's listening and language needs. This deeper understanding will support behavior changes that improve the language-learning environment through increased parental engagement and linguistic input. Knowledge increase and changes to the language environment will be apparent in comparative pre- vs. post-intervention assessment scores. In addition, child outcomes will demonstrate improved listening and spoken language trajectories. To encourage behavior change and help parents track their progress, the curriculum will be coupled with "linguistic feedback" gathered by the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) recorders and software. With linguistic feedback, EI therapists and parents will be able to track the family's progress through skill building and set goals for behavior change. This feedback and goal setting will allow parents to translate their knowledge into behavior changes that enrich their child's early language environment.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Parental Language Behaviors

Interventions

Linguistic Feedback ReportBEHAVIORAL

Throughout the study, parents will complete 16 total LENA recordings. The feedback report will include information on the parent's previous LENA recording(s), including the Adult Word Count (AWC), Conversational Turns (CTC), and TV Time (TVT). Parents in the treatment group will receive feedback reports for the baseline and 10 weekly recordings. Feedback reports will not be offered for the follow-up recordings

Multimedia Education SessionsBEHAVIORAL

Treatment group parents will receive 10 weekly home visit sessions (e.g. the ASPIRE Program) with an interventionist during which time they will review multimedia education modules. The sessions include feedback report review, module discussion, video modeling, and goal setting activities. The education modules provide parents with information on supporting the development of listening and spoken language for children with hearing loss.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 6 MonthsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Child is under 4.5 years old * Child uses at least one amplification device (hearing aid, cochlear implant, BAHA) * Child has adequate amplification (at least 30 db in one ear) * Parent speaks conversational English * Family's communication choice includes spoken language * Family is considered low-SES according to income and education proxies Exclusion Criteria: * Child is younger than 6 months of age * Parent does not speak conversational English * Child is over 4.5 years of age * Family is considered high-SES according to income and education proxies

Locations (1)

The University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Parental Behavior Change - Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA): Quantitative Linguistic Change

The Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system records the home audio environment of children with a recorder and processes the recording information with specialized computer software. Processed recordings provide information for researchers on the following adult language-related behaviors: Adult Word Count (AWC), Conversational Turn Count (CTC), Television Time (TVT), and Background Noise.

Time frame: 16 recordings total over a 6 month period: Baseline (3 Recordings), Weeks 1-10, Week 14, Week 18, Week 22

Child Behavior Change - LENA: Quantitative

The LENA system provides information about child language behaviors in addition to adult language behaviors, including data for Child Vocalization Count (CVC) and Conversational Turn Count (CTC).

Time frame: 16 recordings over a 6 month period: Baseline (3 Recordings, approximately 1 per week for 3 weeks), Weeks 1-10, Week 14, Week 18, Week 22

Secondary Outcomes

Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Screen, short form (CESD-10)

Validated brief depression screen for the parent. Parents who score above the cut score will be assessed for suicidal ideation and self harm. Appropriate referrals will be made following assessment.

Time frame: Approximately 3 weeks pre-intervention

MacArthur Child Development Inventories (CDIs)

Parent self-report of child expressive vocabulary.

Time frame: Approximately 3 weeks pre-intervention; 3 months post-intervention

Scale of Parental Involvement and Self-Efficacy (SPISE)

Parent self-report that assesses of self-efficacy relating to involvement in children's development.

Time frame: Approximately 3 weeks pre-intervention; 1 week post-intervention; 3 months post-intervention

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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