Adaptation of a Rehabilitation Program for Prosody and Its Application on Egyptian Hearing Impaired Children

Summary

Prosody is the melody and rhythm of speech, it is used to refer to the supra segmental aspects of speech including pitch, loudness and duration. Variations in these features achieve different prosodic functions and are perceived by the listener as meaningful changes. The role of prosody in language acquisition and effective communication is documented in research. Nevertheless, prosodic intervention in children with hearing impairment received less attention compared to other speech and language areas.

The aim of this study is to adapt the "prosody treatment program", an evidence based rehabilitation program, and to detect the efficacy of its activities in improving the prosodic skills of Egyptian hearing impaired children.

The "prosody treatment program" is an evidence-based practice targeting receptive and expressive prosodic skills in addition to speech production, intelligibility, pragmatics and phonology. The program is applied using a systematic approach of providing cues following the principles adapted from dynamic temporal and tactile cueing (DTTC) for speech motor learning to help accelerate the child's learning of the prosodic skills targeted in this program. The program was translated to Arabic and adapted to be suitable for the Egyptian children.

Conditions

• Hearing Impaired Children

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Traditional auditory and language rehabilitation

Auditory rehabilitation therapy included activities targeting auditory skills: sound detection, discrimination, identification and auditory comprehension. Language rehabilitation targeted improving semantics, syntax, pragmatics and phonology.

BEHAVIORAL

Prosody treatment program

The "prosody treatment program" is an evidence-based practice targeting receptive and expressive prosodic skills in addition to speech production, intelligibility, pragmatics and phonology. The program incorporates the principles of validated prosodic rehabilitation strategies such as Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC), Melodic Intonation Therapy, Lee Silverman Voice Treatment in addition to expert professional practice. The program was applied using a systematic approach of providing cues to help accelerate the child's learning of the prosodic skills targeted in the program. The program is divided into two sections according to the age into preschool section and school age section.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Alexandria University

  collaborator OTHER

• Sara Magdy Ibrahim

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ossama A Sobhy, PhD · Alexandria University

• Rania M Abdou, PhD · Alexandria University

• Nesrine H Hammouda, PhD · Alexandria University

• Sara M Ibrahim, Master's · Alexandria University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

3 Years

Max Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-02-19

Primary Completion

2020-02-16

Completion

2020-02-16

Countries

• Egypt

Study Locations