Family-Based Training Program: the Role of Mothers' Empowerment in the Speech Development of Children with Hearing Impairments Download PDF

Introduction: Family-centered care in children suffering from hearing impairments requires looking at the family as the center and core of care, whereas less attention is paid to such care in practice despite the numerous advantages it may have. Accordingly, this study aims to present a family-based training program to empower mothers and evaluate its effectiveness in the speech development of children with hearing impairments. Materials and Methods: This study was a randomized controlled trial. The individuals referring to the service providing centers of speech therapy to children with hearing impairments in Shiraz (Iran) were selected as the sample units of this study via convenience sampling method. The participants were assigned to the control and experimental groups (35 ones in each group) through block randomization design. Family-based intervention was conducted in nine 80-minute sessions. In this study, a researcher-constructed questionnaire was used to assess mothers' empowerment. Moreover, Newsha Developmental Scale was used to assess the speech development of children's speech. Results: In this study, 35 subjects in the intervention group and 33 patients in the control group were evaluated. The repeated measures test shows that the interactive effect of group and time (three stages: pre-test, post-test, and follow-up) is significant in the variables of mothers' empowerment, self-efficacy, and adaptation. Within-group pairwise comparison test indicates a significant difference in terms of mothers' empowerment and self-efficacy between pre-test and follow-up (respectively P=0.02 and P=0.04). The evaluation of children's speech development in pre-test & post-test comparison, as well as pre-test-follow-up comparison, is representative of a significant reduction in this variable (respectively P=0.003 and P<0.001). Conclusion: This study showed that family-based intervention program can lead to an increase in the empowerment of the mothers with children suffering from hearing impairments and, thereby, it can bring about the improvement of children's speech development.