Oral language outcomes after narrative intervention in preschoolers who are deaf or hard of hearing

Many children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) show oral language outcomes below hearing peers. The study aimed to test the effect of a four-week narrative intervention on the narrative macrostructure outcomes of four preschoolers who are DHH. Children received eight intervention sessions, during which the interventionist provided modelling and visual support for stories, and children practiced retelling them. Additionally, we asked children to generate their own personal narratives. We used a multiple baseline single-case research design to assess narrative macrostructure changes based on the children’s story retellings. All participants improved their ability to retell stories after the intervention, especially Participants 1 and 3, the ones with lower scores at baseline. Participants 1 and 2’s personal narratives improved after the intervention. Narrative intervention is effective for improving story retelling in preschoolers who are DHH. However, these gains are not maintained and do not generalise to story generation for all children who might require longer and more targeted interventions.