Parent-Child Early Approaches to Raising Language Skills (PEARLS) Intervention
Parent-Child Early Approaches to Raising Language Skills (PEARLS) Intervention
The purpose of this research study is to develop and evaluate a parent training program,
 which aims to improve language. The study is being conducted to see if teaching parents
 positive parenting techniques and behavior strategies will improve the rate of language
 development in children with cochlear implants when compared to standard speech therapy
 (e.g., auditory-verbal therapy).
Inclusion Criteria:

 1. children who are severely to profoundly deaf and a cochlear implant candidate,

 2. children who are 12 to 48 months,

 3. English or Spanish as primary language spoken at home,

 4. families educating their children in spoken language,

 5. children who pass the cognitive screening, scoring 75 or above on the screening
 measure

 Exclusion Criteria:

 1. parents who do not consent to being videotaped,

 2. children with moderate to severe developmental delays (as assessed using the Battelle
 Developmental Inventory (BDI-2) 2nd Edition for children ages 0 to 24 months or the
 Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised),

 3. children with significant syndromes (e.g., CHARGE, autism, cerebral palsy) or severe
 brain abnormalities,

 4. families who do not receive their auditory-verbal therapy from University of Miami
 (UM). Further, children who have already completed the BDI-2 within the past year as
 part of their Early Steps (Florida Early Intervention) program will not have it
 re-administered.