NorChild: Norwegian Children’s HearIng Longitudinal Databank
NorChild: Norwegian Children’s HearIng Longitudinal Databank
About NorChild:
Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) are at risk of developmental delays in areas such as language and communication, academic skills, and socioemotional functioning. In the past 25 years, universal newborn hearing screening programs in many parts of the world have enabled early detection of hearing loss in babies, followed by early intervention programs, greatly improving developmental conditions for DHH children. Yet, although it is known on a group level that early intervention is better than late intervention, questions regarding intensity, scope and content of interventions remain. In short, we know that DHH children as a group need support, but we do not know who needs what, how much and at what time.
The NorChild research group aims to develop a comprehensive databank that includes longitudinal data on DHH children from the age of 9 months and up to 6 years. Children and their families will be recruited in collaboration with the Norwegian Hearing Register for Children, and the data collection is aligned with similar databanks in other countries to facilitate future international collaboration. NorChild has close collaborations with the ACHILD research group at Johannes Kepler University/Barmherzige Brüder Konventhospital Linz, Austria (Dall et al., 2022) and was part of the FCEI-DHH International Consensus group that contributed to the revision of best practice guidelines for family-centered early intervention.
Short-term aims for NorChild are to identify associations between early intervention services, child/family characteristics, and developmental outcomes. The long-term aim is to identify predictors, mediators and moderators of developmental outcomes in DHH children, using longitudinal research designs and robust statistical models.
The data collection will use standardized parent report instruments to measure developmental outcomes. To ensure that the psychometric properties of these instruments are satisfactory, the research group has conducted several validation studies in preparation for the main data collection.
Scientific work
Laugen, N.J., Midtli, H., Löfkvist, U., Stensen, K. (2024). Psychometric properties of the Norwegian version of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire in a preschool sample. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 1-7.
Aanondsen, C. M., Jozefiak, T., Lydersen, S., Heiling, K., & Rimehaug, T. (2023). Deaf and hard-of-hearing children and adolescents’ mental health, Quality of Life and communication. BMC Psychiatry, 23(1), 297.
Johansen, L., Gray, T., Haukedal, C. L., Jakhelln Laugen, N., Diamanti, V., & Lofkvist, U. (2023). Validation of the Norwegian version of the Parents' Evaluation of Aural/ Oral Performance of Children (PEACH+) for children with typical hearing aged 12-72 months. PLoS One, 18(8), e0289898.
Aanondsen, C. M., Jozefiak, T., Heiling, K., Lydersen, S., & Rimehaug, T. (2021). Psychometric properties of the Inventory of Life Quality in children and adolescents in Norwegian Sign Language. BMC Psychology, 9(1), Article 89.
Laugen, N.J; Erixon, E; Huttunen, K; Mäki-Torkko, E; Löfkvist, U. (2021). Newborn hearing screening and intervention in children with unilateral hearing impairment: Clinical practices in three Nordic countries. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 10(21): 5152.
Aanondsen, C. M., Jozefiak, T., Heiling, K., & Rimehaug, T. (2019). Validation of the Strengths and Difficulties Self-Report in Norwegian Sign Language. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.
Laugen, N. J. (2018). The psychosocial development of hard-of-hearing preschool children: Implications for early intervention. In Knoors, H., & Marschark, M. (ed). Evidence-based practices in deaf education. New York, Oxford University Press: 437-454.
Aanondsen, C. M., Heiling, K., Nøvik, T. S., & Jozefiak, T. (2018). Quality of Life, family function and mental health of deaf and hard-of-hearing adolescents in mental health services in Norway - a pilot study. International Journal on Mental Health and Deafness, 4(1), 3-13.
Laugen, N. J., Löfkvist, U., Erixon, E., Mäki-Torkko, E., Vinay, S., & Huttunen, K. (2024, May 16-17). Early-onset unilateral hearing loss: Moving towards a better understanding [Poster presentation]. FCEI – the 6th International Conference on Family Centered Early Intervention for Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Bad Ischl, Austria.
Nielsen, A.K.R., Laugen, N.J. (2024, May 16-17). Will we ever truly understand each other? Parents’ experiences with choosing a language approach for their child with hearing loss [Poster presentation]. FCEI – the 6th International Conference on Family Centered Early Intervention for Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Bad Ischl, Austria.
Sung, V., Dirks, E., Laugen, N.J., Dall, M., Holzinger, D. Roundtable on international collaborations in longitudinal developmental research of young DHH children. FCEI – the 6th International Conference on Family Centered Early Intervention for Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Bad Ischl, Austria.
Huttunen, K., Galvin, K., Kaartokallio, T., Kiviniemi-Pulli, A., Vinay, S., Löfkvist, U., Erixon, E., Mäki-Torkko, E., Laugen, N.J. (2023, May 31 – June 3). Parental evaluation of 4- to 5-year-old children’s auditory functioning – A cross-linguistic study [Oral presentation]. 16th European Symposium on pediatric cochlear implantation, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Huttunen, K., Erixon, E., Löfkvist, U., Laugen, N.J., Mäki-Torkko, E. (2022, June 1-3). Impact of congenital or early acquired unilateral hearing impairment on children - How to gain more high-quality knowledge? [Oral presentation] The Nordic Audiological Society's Conference NAS, Odense, Denmark
Moeller, M. P., Gale, E., Szarkowski, A., Smith, T., Birdsey, B. C., Moodie, S. T. F., Carr, G., Stredler-Brown, A., Yoshinaga-Itano, C., FCEI-DHH International Consensus Panel, & Holzinger, D. (2024). Family-Centered Early Intervention Deaf/Hard of Hearing (FCEI-DHH): Introduction. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 29(SI), SI3-SI7.
Szarkowski, A., Moeller, M. P., Gale, E., Smith, T., Birdsey, B. C., Moodie, S. T. F., Carr, G., Stredler-Brown, A., Yoshinaga-Itano, C., FCEI-DHH International Consensus Panel, & Holzinger, D. (2024). Family-Centered Early Intervention Deaf/Hard of Hearing (FCEI-DHH): Cultural & Global Implications. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 29(SI), SI27-SI39.
Moeller, M. P., Gale, E., Szarkowski, A., Smith, T., Birdsey, B. C., Moodie, S. T. F., Carr, G., Stredler-Brown, A., Yoshinaga-Itano, C., FCEI-DHH International Consensus Panel, & Holzinger, D. (2024). Family-Centered Early Intervention Deaf/Hard of Hearing (FCEI-DHH): Foundation Principles. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 29(SI), SI53-SI63.
Szarkowski, A., Moeller, M. P., Gale, E., Smith, T., Birdsey, B. C., Moodie, S. T. F., Carr, G., Stredler-Brown, A., Yoshinaga-Itano, C., FCEI-DHH International Consensus Panel, & Holzinger, D. (2024). Family-Centered Early Intervention Deaf/Hard of Hearing (FCEI-DHH): Support Principles. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 29(SI), SI64-SI85.
Szarkowski, A., Gale, E., Moeller, M. P., Smith, T., Birdsey, B. C., Moodie, S. T. F., Carr, G., Stredler-Brown, A., Yoshinaga-Itano, C., FCEI-DHH International Consensus Panel, & Holzinger, D. (2024). Family-Centered Early Intervention Deaf/Hard of Hearing (FCEI-DHH): Structure Principles. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 29(SI), SI86-SI104.
Moeller, M. P., Szarkowski, A., Gale, E., Smith, T., Birdsey, B. C., Moodie, S. T. F., Carr, G., Stredler-Brown, A., Yoshinaga-Itano, C., FCEI-DHH International Consensus Panel, & Holzinger, D. (2024). Family-Centered Early Intervention Deaf/Hard of Hearing (FCEI-DHH): Guiding Values. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 29(SI), SI8-SI26.
Members
Chris Aanondsen, Regionfunksjon for hørsel og psykisk helse, BUP Tiller, St. Olavs Hospital
Frederick Anyan, IPS, NTNU
Siri Wennberg, Seksjon for Medisinske Kvalitetsregistre, St. Olavs Hospital
Patrick Kermit, IPH, NTNU
Collaborators
Daniel Holzinger, Institut für Sinnesheilkunde und Sprachneurologie, Barmherzige Brüder Konventhospital, and Johannes Kepler Universität, Linz
Johannes Fellinger, Institut für Sinnesheilkunde und Sprachneurologie, Barmherzige Brüder Konventhospital, and Johannes Kepler Universität, Linz
Magdalena Dall, Institut für Sinnesheilkunde und Sprachneurologie, Barmherzige Brüder Konventhospital, and Johannes Kepler Universität, Linz
Valerie Sung, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne
Evelien Dirks, NSDSK, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Ulrika Löfkvist, Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Elsa Erixon, Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Elina Mäki-Torkko, Örebro Universitet, Sweden
Kerttu Huttunen, Oulu University, Finland