Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of melody and rhythm on typical hearing and deaf/hard-of-hearing preschool children’s acquisition of selected vocabulary words. Participants (N = 30) were preschool children 3 to 4 years of age with typical hearing (n = 15) and varying levels of hearing loss (n = 15). After consultation with early childhood specialists and pilot testing participants’ knowledge of vocabulary, 24 target words were selected from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Four target words from the categories: plants, birds, animals, woodwind/string instruments, percussion instruments and vegetables were assigned to one of four conditions: (1) no contact control—words not purposefully taught, (2) contact control/conversational—words taught using speaking voice, signs, and visual aids, (3) melody—words taught through singing, signs, and visual aids, and (4) rhythm—words taught through rhythmic chants, signs, and visual aids. Analyses revealed that hearing participants made significant gains from pre- to post test under the rhythmic, contact control/conversational and melodic conditions. Further analysis revealed that their pre- to posttest gains under the contact control/conversational condition were significantly greater than their gain scores under the melodic and no contact control conditions. Additional analysis revealed that participants with hearing losses made significant gains from pre to posttest under the rhythmic and conversational/signed conditions. Further analysis revealed that their pre- to posttest gain scores under the rhythmic condition were significantly greater than their gain scores under the contact control/conversational, melodic, or no contact control conditions. This last finding corroborates previous research that indicates rhythmic cueing can be an effective mnemonic device for sight word recognition, particularly for children with hearing losses.
|
