The Effectiveness of Online Dialogic Storytelling on Vocabulary Skills of Hard of Hearing Children

Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of an online dialogic storytelling program on vocabulary skills (picture, relative, and oral vocabulary skills) of hard of hearing children. Methods: In this experimental study with pre-test-post-test and a control group design, 34 mothers of hard of hearing children participated. Children’s ages range from 4 to 6 years and they were selected from aural rehabilitation centers in Tehran. They were assigned randomly into the experimental (n=17) and control (n=17) groups that were matched for age and sex. Before starting the online dialogic storytelling program, the children took the Test Of Language Development (TOLD-P: 3). The online dialogic storytelling was done 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week for 12 weeks for mothers and their children. After completion of the program, the language development test was administered to both groups as the post-test. The data were analyzed by 1-way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Results: The results showed that the vocabulary skills, picture, relative and oral vocabulary of the experimental group significantly improved after participating in the online dialogic storytelling sessions (P<0.001) Discussion: Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to improve the vocabulary skills of hearing-impaired children and it seems that storytelling needs to be included in their rehabilitation programs.