Two experiments examined perceptual colocation of visual and tactile stimuli in young infants. Experiment 1 compared 4-(n = 15) and 6-month-old (n = 12) infants' visual preferences for visual-tactile stimulus pairs presented across the same or different feet. The 4-and 6-month-olds showed, respectively, preferences for colocated and noncolocated conditions, demonstrating sensitivity to visual-tactile colocation on their feet. This extends previous findings of visual-tactile perceptual colocation on the hands in older infants. Control conditions excluded the possibility that both 6-(Experiment 1), and 4-month-olds (Experiment 2, n = 12) perceived colocation on the basis of an undifferentiated supramodal coding of spatial distance between stimuli. Bimodal perception of visual-tactile colocation is available by 4 months of age, that is, prior to the development of skilled reaching.
Purpose
Narrative intervention has not been extensively investigated with children with hearing loss, but it has been shown to improve a broad range of language skills of children with a variety of disabilities and language needs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of narrative language intervention on the narrative retelling skills and vocabulary use of children with hearing loss.
Method
A multiple baseline design (for retelling) and a repeated acquisition design (for vocabulary) were used to fulfill the purpose of the study. Participants included two children ages 5 and 9 years diagnosed with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, fitted to an amplification device. Each child received one 70-min session of individual narrative language intervention per week for at least 6 weeks that focused on teaching less common vocabulary words in addition to story grammar and complex sentences.
Results
Both participants demonstrated weekly increases in narrative retell scores and repeated pretest to posttest gains in the use of targeted vocabulary. Evidenced through visual analysis, both participants showed some growth in retell once intervention was introduced, with at least a modest upward trend each week. Moreover, vocabulary use scores, collected directly after intervention, showed both participants improved vocabulary use in familiar and untrained contexts.
Conclusions
Results suggest narrative language intervention improved the narrative retell ability and vocabulary use of children with hearing loss. Narrative intervention is a promising approach for promoting the language skills of children with hearing loss, but this finding requires replication.
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