Infants & Young Children Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 262–280 Copyright C  2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. Using Repeated Reading and Explicit Instruction to Teach Vocabulary to Preschoolers With Hearing Loss Jonna L. Bobzien, PhD; Corrin Richels, PhD; Kathryn Schwartz, AuD, PhD; Sharon A. Raver, PhD; Peggy Hester, PhD; Lisa Morin, PhD Children with hearing loss often experience communication and language delays that result in difficulties acquiring novel vocabulary and literacy skills. This research examined the effectiveness of using repeated storybook reading paired with explicit teacher instruction to teach novel vocab- ulary to young children with hearing loss who were receiving instruction with an oral approach. Data from a multiple baseline design across 4 children demonstrated that all children acquired the instructional vocabulary words, demonstrated generalization of the words in a novel situation, and maintained vocabulary for 2–4 weeks following intervention. Vocabulary that had not been explic- itly taught was learned at a low rate across the 5 books. Implications for teaching young children with hearing loss and communication delays are discussed. Key words: expressive language, hearing loss, preschool, receptive language, vocabulary instruction I N THE UNITED STATES, approximately two to three infants out of 1,000 will be born with a congenital anomaly of the auditory system that results in deafness or hearing loss (Bachmann & Arvedson, 1998; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010; Cunningham & Cox, 2003; National Institutes of Health, 2006). Because of the development that occurs prenatally, an infant Author Affiliations: Department of Communication Disorders and Special Education, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. Special gratitude to the staff of the oral preschool pro- gram, Janet Knust, Rachael Day, and Victoria Jones, and doctoral students Lauren Reed, Angela de Mik, and Adrienne McIntosh, for their assistance with this work. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article. Correspondence: Jonna L. Bobzien, PhD, 102 Lions Child Study Center, Department of Communication Disorders and Special Education, Old Dominion Uni- versity, Norfolk, VA 23529 (jbobzien@odu.edu). DOI: 10.1097/IYC.0000000000000039 born with an intact auditory system possesses complete hearing abilities from 24 weeks’ gestation. In utero, a fetus is capable of distinguishing familiar sounds (e.g., mother’s voice) from unfamiliar sounds (e.g., vacuum cleaner), which results in the refinement of auditory processing skills that promote future language development (Woolfolk & Perry, 2012). Consequently, infants who are born deaf or with hearing loss are already at a disadvantage before they are born because they were unable to take advantage of hearing the sounds of their native language as they are produced by their mothers (Kisilevsky et al., 2003). An intact auditory mechanism is a crucial part of an infant’s ability to be an active participant in his/her environment. For example, when the auditory system is functioning properly, infants as young as a few days old will turn their heads when they hear their mothers’ voices (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980). This simple head turn to localize sound orients the infant’s eyes to the direc- tion of his/her caregiver and allows him/her Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. 262