A systematic review of narrative-based language intervention with children who have language disorders caused by hearing impairments

This article carries out a literature review of the quality and limitations of the narrative-based language intervention (NBLI) for preschool and school-age hearing aided and cochlear implanted children.
The authors conducted a comprehensive search of electronic databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, Pubmed, Google Scholar, Cochrane, and ProQuest from 1980 to 2015 for studies using all research designs except non-experimental studies. Of 1095 potentially relevant articles evaluated by two reviewers independently, eight trials met inclusion criteria.
Findings: At least eight studies to date have reported findings for the efficacy of NBLI in this population. The current review involves a description of these studies. The review shows that all of the eight studies have limitations methodologically and preliminary results. Alth­ough the results of the studies were generally positive, each of the studies had a limited num­ber of participants, limited experimental control, and considerable variation in the procedures and materials used.
It would appear that to determine the efficacy of NBLI approach in hearing aided and cochlear implanted children we should investigate in more depth in studies with higher methodological rigor, more sample size, and clear therapy protocol. Clinicians should be cautious when interpreting the results of these studies. Narrative intervention is at an emerging stage of evidence and need to further inves­tigations.