For this study, 50 children, who are deaf/hard of hearing, and their caregiver will be enrolled into 2 separate 6-month intervention periods, for a total of 12 months of participation. There are two intervention periods in this study, Intervention Period 1 (SLT) and Intervention Period 2 (SLT+Digital). Each one lasts about 6 months and every participant will participate in both intervention periods.~Intervention Period 1 is the speech-language therapy (SLT) only intervention. During this intervention, the child will go to speech therapy as normally prescribed by their speech language pathologist. There will be standardized reading time that is prescribed at 20 minutes, 3 times a week and will be completed at home by the child and caregiver.~Intervention Period 2 is the speech-language therapy with the Hear Me Read (SLT+Digital) intervention. During this intervention, the child will continue to go to speech therapy as they typically would, but will be asked to use the Hear Me Read app. There will be standardized reading time that is prescribed at 20 minutes, 3 times a week and will be completed at home by the child and caregiver using the Hear Me Read app.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate if the effects of in-person speech-language therapy with a novel digital storybook intervention platform (Hear Me Read) improves vocabulary, speech and language, and literacy outcomes in young children who are deaf or hard of hearing compared with in-person therapy alone.