Computerized Speechreading Training for Deaf Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Hannah Pimperton, Fiona Kyle, Charles Hulme and 7 others
PMID 31336055WHAT IT FOUND
Deaf children aged 5–7 who completed computerized speechreading training showed no gain on the primary speechreading test compared to a maths control.
However, they demonstrated significant improvement in everyday speechreading comprehension three months post-training, though this benefit faded by 11 months.
Key findings
01There were no significant differences between the intervention and control groups on the prespecified primary outcome variable, total ToCS standard score, at either immediate follow-up or 3-month follow-up.
02Speechreading training produced significant benefits on the secondary ToCS Everyday Questions task at 3 months post-training, but these effects were no longer significant 11 months later.
03Children with the poorest audiovisual speech output at baseline showed significant improvement in speech production quality following training, an effect not seen in children starting with higher scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Adherence to the intervention was poor, with less than two-thirds of children completing all 48 sessions due to school technical issues and illness. The sample size was small, which may have reduced the study's power to detect subtle effects. Participants were selected based on age rather than language level, meaning some children already had competent speechreading skills, potentially limiting the room for improvement. The primary outcome measure used a forced-choice format, which may have been less sensitive to real-world speechreading improvements than the free-response secondary measures. The 11-month follow-up assessment was not preregistered, so findings at this time point should be interpreted with caution.
Declared interests
The study was funded by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship and an Economic and Social Research Council Centre Grant. The authors acknowledge the work of Cauldron in developing the games.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this training improves general speechreading ability. The primary outcome was null, and the significant gains in everyday comprehension faded by 11 months, suggesting the effects are not durable.