The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of decision-making factors of caregivers of children with hearing loss regarding the use of speech, the use of sign, spoken language multilingualism, and spoken language choice. Often, caregivers are making these important decisions while often not knowing the effects it will have on them and their child. According to the article, the previous studies “(a) allowed for a comprehensive set of potential factors to be examined, (b) allowed for the importance of factors to be compared, or (c) considered a large, heterogeneous sample of children with hearing loss. In addition to these limitations, caregiver decision making regarding spoken language choice for children from multilingual families
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There were 88 boys (56.1%) and 69 girls (43.9%) between three years five months old and nine years four months old, with an average age of six years seven months old. The questionnaire used in this study investigated the factors that may influence caregiver decision-making about communication mode and language use by looking at how the caregivers rated the importance of items describing potential child, family, community, and advice influences on decision-making that related to use of speech, use of sign, spoken language multilingualism, and the use of English rather than another spoken language (p. 238). The caregivers rated the importance of a range of potential influences on their decision-making regarding their children’s communication on a scale from not important, somewhat important, very important, to not applicable. Almost all caregivers were the parents of the children with whom they were reporting and came from a variety of backgrounds. Children in this study used hearing aids and cochlear implants; the mean age of the first hearing aid fitting was ten years four months, with 56.7% children fitted before six months of age. The data was analyzed using SPSS, exploratory factor analyses, and multiple …show more content…
Most of the caregivers decided their children should live in the hearing world by using speech. When observing what influences were most important in caregivers’ decision-making with regards to speech, “‘my own speech skills’ (96.9%)’, ‘I want my child to be able to speak to his/her extended family’ (91.2%)’ and ‘I want my child to be able to speak to his/her friends’ (91.2%)” were ranked most important (p. 239). Lastly, both communication methods stress audiological and intervention characteristics, children’s future opportunities, communication skills of the family, and how well the child will communicate as areas of influence in decision-making. As mentioned in the article, “the desire for oral communication has been related to providing broader education opportunities, better speech and language development, and better opportunities for socialization (Hyde, Punch, & Komesaroff, 2010; Li et al., 2003)” (p.
There were 88 boys (56.1%) and 69 girls (43.9%) between three years five months old and nine years four months old, with an average age of six years seven months old. The questionnaire used in this study investigated the factors that may influence caregiver decision-making about communication mode and language use by looking at how the caregivers rated the importance of items describing potential child, family, community, and advice influences on decision-making that related to use of speech, use of sign, spoken language multilingualism, and the use of English rather than another spoken language (p. 238). The caregivers rated the importance of a range of potential influences on their decision-making regarding their children’s communication on a scale from not important, somewhat important, very important, to not applicable. Almost all caregivers were the parents of the children with whom they were reporting and came from a variety of backgrounds. Children in this study used hearing aids and cochlear implants; the mean age of the first hearing aid fitting was ten years four months, with 56.7% children fitted before six months of age. The data was analyzed using SPSS, exploratory factor analyses, and multiple …show more content…
Most of the caregivers decided their children should live in the hearing world by using speech. When observing what influences were most important in caregivers’ decision-making with regards to speech, “‘my own speech skills’ (96.9%)’, ‘I want my child to be able to speak to his/her extended family’ (91.2%)’ and ‘I want my child to be able to speak to his/her friends’ (91.2%)” were ranked most important (p. 239). Lastly, both communication methods stress audiological and intervention characteristics, children’s future opportunities, communication skills of the family, and how well the child will communicate as areas of influence in decision-making. As mentioned in the article, “the desire for oral communication has been related to providing broader education opportunities, better speech and language development, and better opportunities for socialization (Hyde, Punch, & Komesaroff, 2010; Li et al., 2003)” (p.