Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of home-based intervention to support early deaf child development in South Africa.

Lead Research Organisation: The University of Manchester
Department Name: School of Health Sciences

Abstract

Around 6000 children per year are born deaf or become so in the first weeks of life in South Africa (SA). For the vast majority, the absence of newborn hearing screening and access to hearing technologies in the first few years of life, results in severe impairment to deaf children's linguistic, cognitive and social development. In economically rich countries this is not the case where universal newborn hearing screening plus high quality early intervention has radically reduced the deleterious effects of deafness and positively impacted the life chances of deaf people. WHO recognises hearing impairment as the most prevalent disabling condition globally, affecting an estimated 7.5 million under the age of 5, two thirds of whom reside in the developing world. Although early childhood development is a key priority, impacting this situation for deaf children is hampered by a scarcity of population level data and very few quality early intervention programmes that reach all population demographics. SA is potentially different because there is one large-scale donor funded home based early intervention programme for deaf children and their families that has been evidenced to reach representative diverse populations (HI HOPES). Demographic, hearing and developmental data are available on over 1800 deaf children under 6 years of age making it the largest such data set in sub-Saharan Africa. However, only a small part of this data set has ever been analysed and published. In SA there has been a large government investment in boosting early childhood development with the creation national early learning standards and a country-specific standardised tool- the ELOM (Early Learning Outcome measure). Deaf children so far have been excluded from these steps forward because of the absence of evidence for effective early intervention and the need to adapt the ELOM to be valid for deaf children which in turn will provide evidence for future intervention priorities and programmes. In this context, the goals of our project are: [A] To evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the HI HOPES programme in order to consider its potential for upscaling throughout SA and into other countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. [B] To provide large scale data on the development of deaf children in SA aligned with the SA Government/UNICEF National Early Learning and Development Standards birth to 4 years (NELDS) as a basis for clearer identification of developmental support requirements for this population. [C] To adapt for use with deaf children, in both spoken and signed languages, the SA Government- adopted tool for the evaluation of early childhood development - the ELOM (Early Learning Outcome Measure) - so it becomes possible for the first time in South Africa accurately to evaluate deaf children's developmental progress and needs in all domains (not just language) at point of school entry. Research questions are: A1: What is the impact on communication and language development of exposure to a structured home-based early intervention programme for deaf children birth to 6 years and what variables influence its effectiveness? A2: Is a population level early intervention service to promote deaf child development and parent responsive care cost effective? B: To what extent are deaf children meeting National Early Learning Development Standards in SA? C: What are the reliability and validity characteristics of an adaptation suitable for deaf children of the ELOM? Two deaf-specific research units (one in South Africa, one in the UK) are partnering with HI HOPES and the ELOM Foundation/Innovation Edge to achieve these goals to build both a substantial set of evidence on deaf child development in South Africa and new tools for its monitoring as the basis for further policy and practice development in this field where evidence based practice is lacking and the economic case for early investment for deaf children is yet to be made.

Technical Summary

The study concerns deaf children under 6 years in South Africa (SA) who have been enrolled the HI HOPES early intervention programme (n=1800). The research objectives are: [A] To evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the HI HOPES programme in order to consider its potential for upscaling throughout SA and into other countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. [B] To provide large scale data on the development of deaf children in SA aligned with the SA Government/UNICEF National Early Learning and Development Standards birth to 4 years (NELDS) as a basis for clearer identification of developmental support requirements for this population. [C] To adapt for use with deaf children, in both spoken and signed languages, the SA Government- adopted tool for the evaluation of early childhood development - the ELOM (Early Learning Outcome Measure) - so it becomes possible for the first time in South Africa accurately to evaluate deaf children's developmental progress and needs in all domains (not just language) at point of school entry. A process evaluation methodology guides the secondary data analysis of the HI HOPES data set and primary data collection on 200 infants. The outcome measures are a criterion-referenced deaf child language development scales (LDS) and early childhood development assessment (NELDS - SA). In addition, the study will adapt the ELOM (SA) to be suitable for deaf children following an online Delphi consensus approach and a test-retest reliability study (n=80). The cost effectiveness study uses a bottom-up, ingredients-based costing analysis and a cost of illness study from a societal perspective. The project will also supply data on the model, impact and costs of intervention at a level of detail to enable feasibility testing of its scalability at national level and its replicability in other countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.
 
Description ELOM training of Assessors (fluent in SASL)
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact • The trainers shared their immense growth in their first training with Deaf Assessors, noting an authentic awareness of SASL and Deafness and a deeper understanding of the differences and impact of deafness. They experienced this for both the adult trainees and the Deaf children at the school. • The Deaf assessors were trained in something they would never have had the opportunity to access without the research grant: in terms of the specialized assessor training as well as the full access through South African Sign Language (SASL) interpreters
 
Title Adaptation of the ELOM for South African Sign Language users 
Description The ELOM (Early Learning Outcome Measures) is the nationally endorsed standard early childhood development assessment for all children (age 59 - 72 months) in South Africa. A key objective of this grant was to adapt the ELOM for use in South African Sign Language and to carry out preliminary validation through field research. This has been achieved. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The organisation commissioned by the government to use the ELOM on a national basis in bi-annual representative audit of the progress of all children in South Africa, Datadrive 2030, has been a core partner in this process with the intention of the ELOM-D (as it is referred to) ultimately becoming available as standard within the language suite of ELOM available across the population. This is a major step forward as the first time such a tool has been available in South Africa that specifically addresses the population of deaf children and links specifically with SA Government ECD strategy and actions. There has previously been no means for deaf children to be included in a key national objective for Early Childhood Development and its national reporting under the UN Sustainable Goals. It will be a means of tracking the impact of early childhood deafness on school readiness in a way that has not been previously possible in South Africa. In the course of the development of the tool, Deaf adult South African Sign Language users became trained and accredited, for the first time, within the ECD infrastructure for the administration of the ELOM creating jobs and new skills and expertise in this adult population. 
 
Title Hi Hopes data set 
Description This is a data set currently comprising over 1200 deaf children and families in South Africa on whom demographic, deafness related and intervention data have been collected. Early descriptions of this data set have been previously published prior to teh award by the UK PI (Young) and the South African PI (Storbeck). The current award in phase 1 builds on this to refine, curate, update and provide further detailed analysis of the data set. Previous publications have demonstrated an acceptable representativeness of the populations of South Africa on a range of cultural, geographical, linguistic and socio-economic variables. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Two academic publications that pre-date this project award but which were instrumental in demonstrating the feasibilty of teh current project and its resultant outputs. Those prior publications were: Storbeck, C., Young, A. (2016). The HI HOPES data set of deaf children under the age of 6 in South Africa: maternal suspicion, age of identification and newborn hearing screening. BMC Pediatrics, 16:45. doi: 10.1186/s12887-016-0574-1 Storbeck, C., Young, A., Moodley, S., Ismail, S. (2023). Audiological profile of the Hi Hopes Data Set of deaf children under six years old in South Africa. International Journal of Audiology. 62:9, 845-852. https://doi.org/10.1080/14992027.2022.2101551 
 
Description Board for good governance - between CFDA and international researchers and the local Government representatives 
Organisation Government of South Africa
Country South Africa 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution The UK MRC grant required us to set up a Board for good governance and it was a strategic opportunity to invite key individuals onto the Board, which have (and will have) an impact on the development of collaborations, between the CFDS and the international researchers and the local Government representatives. A key collaboration that has developed is one that is based on the adaptation for children who use SASL of an ECD assessment in South Africa (the ELOM -Early Learning Outcomes Measure - adapted will be the ELOM-D). The organization (DD2030 - DataDrive 2030) that set up our platform and provided the assessor training was so inspired by the process, that they have indicated a desire to continue working with us (see Next Destination Outcome).
Collaborator Contribution as above.
Impact Still ongoing. Full details to be reported in the future.
Start Year 2023
 
Description SA University 
Organisation University of the Witwatersrand
Country South Africa 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This was a collaborative GCRF project between the University of Manchester and the University of the Witwatersrand Centre for Deaf studies. The research project was led by UoM (Granada Centre and SORD).
Collaborator Contribution The SA department (Centre for Deaf Studies) received funds from the UK but also contributed additional time and resources in kind.
Impact Photogrpahy exhibitions in SA and the UK; films made by deaf young people in SA; academic presentations and publications
Start Year 2016
 
Description Annual strategic review of Early Childhood Education in South Africa 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The South African Government's Department of Basic Education (DBE) has kept a watching brief on the work, a result of which the SA PI Prof Claudine Storbeck) was invited to the DBE Lekgotla in March 2024 as expert informant into the annual strategic review of early childhood education in SA. This is important because only recently has the DBE taken over responsibility for ECD in South Africa from the Department of Social Development.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Presented at University of Witwatersand - 25th Celebration for Centre for Deaf Studies. "Celebrating 25 years of excellence looking toward the next 25." 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Centre for Deaf Studies recently launched and hosted its 25th Celebration at the University of the Witwatersrand (Sept 2023 ). The primary event, was hosted at the Centre for Deaf Studies (CFDS) and VIP guests included our Vice Chancellor, Dean of Faculty and Head of School, along with the Wits Head of Research, Marketing and Development and other key academic leaders. Additionally, we had prominent Deaf South African leaders, including among others, our member of Parliament, Directors of DeafSA (both current and retired), Deaf business leaders and Artists as well as leaders from the International Deaf Community. There were approx. 55 attendees.
• During Prof Storbeck keynote address, whilst celebrating the 25 years, I was able to include the significant work we have done in the three pillars of the CFDS: Research, Teaching and Community Outreach . Of particular focus was the more recent growth and development of our research arm, which definitely drew much acknowledgement from the attendees.
• Prof Alys Young, made a presentation at the event via a Zoom link and her presentation specifically focused on the leading research and innovations the CFDS has been involved in and then honed in on this significant UK MRC grant and bilateral collaboration between the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Manchester.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Prof Storbeck was invited to present at the UNICEF Play conference in Feb 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact There were 130 face-to-face attendees, and 40 attendees at this event. Prof Storbeck was invited to present at the UNICEF Play conference in Feb 2024, as the only academic/ experienced presenter over the 2-day event. She is consistently invited for comment within the ECD (early childhood development) sector in South Africa, due to the dirth of leadership in this field, with particular reference to deafness, other sensory disabilities and vulnerable children and families.

During the Play conference the ELOM was frequently referred to as it assesses young children (4-5 year olds) and Dr Storbeck's presentation referred to the fact that to date deaf children have been excluded and that we are changing this now. Following the talk, during the networking conversations after sessions when they referred to the ELOM, she could engage and share about the work we are doing on the ELOM-D.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description RedCap Africa 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact REDCap is relatively new to South Africa as a health related data tool. Our project has used it. Hence South African PI's (Prof Claudine Storbeck) invitation to present at the REDCap Africa Symposium 23-24 October 2024, Johannesburg on "Innovative & Empowering ways to use REDCap in Deaf Studies". Direct personal feedback from Paul Harris REDCap founder on the innovative use in a visual language and potential ways to extend research collaboration.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024