Özet:

This study investigated the impact of age of intervention on receptive and expressive language development among children with hearing impairment in Rivers State. Specifically, the study examined the impact of the age of intervention on the expressive language development among children with hearing impairment in Rivers State, and the impact of the age of intervention on the receptive language development among children with hearing impairment in Rivers State. A descriptive design was used to carry out the study. The population of the study comprises four hundred and twenty-one (421) caregivers and parents from eight (8) Orphanage homes, rehabilitation centres, and Special Needs Schools in Port Harcourt metropolis with a sample size of three hundred (300) caregivers and parents drawn from Obio/Akpor, and Port Harcourt Local Government Areas through the accidental sampling technique. A researcher designed questionnaire titled; Hearing Impairment Intervention and Language Development Questionnaire (HIILDQ) was used for the data collection for the study. The instrument was validated and tested for reliability, with a reliability index of 0.840 determined through Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Mean score and standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions while Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings from this study showed that there was significant impact of age of intervention on the development of expressive and receptive language ability among children with hearing impairment in Rivers State. Based on the findings of the study, the study recommended amongst others that Government should subsidy or offer free intervention services to children who may develop hearing impairment, so as to lessen the burden on parents or caregiver who wish to intervene at the early stage of the impairment.

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