Effectiveness of Remote Parent Coaching for Parent-Infant Communication in Infants with Hearing Loss Younger than 12 Months

Objectives: This study aimed to develop a remote parent coaching program for infants with hearing loss (HL) younger than 12 months and evaluate its multifaceted effects on both parents and infants. Methods: Five parent-infant dyads, consisting of infants aged 5-11 months and their mothers, participated in a remote parent coaching program. Joint attention, parental verbal responsiveness, parental linguistic input, and infant vocalization frequency were analyzed across three phases: pre-coaching, post-coaching, and maintenance. Parental knowledge, confidence, and behavior were assessed before and after the coaching using the Scale of Parental Involvement and Self-Efficacy-Revised-Korean version (SPISE-R-K). Results: Significant improvements were observed in joint attention ratio and parental verbal responsiveness during both the post-coaching and maintenance phases. Mean joint attention duration showed a significant increase at the maintenance stage. Regarding linguistic input, total utterances and total words significantly decreased following the coaching, whereas the number of different words did not show a significant change. Changes in infant vocalization frequency were not significant. Results from the SPISE-R-K indicated significant improvements in parental knowledge and behavior, while no significant change was found in parental confidence. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the remote parent coaching program is an effective early intervention for improving the quality of parent-infant interaction. By facilitating meaningful behavioral changes in parents and maintaining these effects over time, this program offers a feasible alternative approach that enhances both the accessibility and sustainability of early intervention services for infants with HL and their parents.