Grammatical Outcomes of 3- and 6-Year-Old Children Who Are Hard of Hearing

Abstract

Purpose Spoken language skills of 3- and 6-year-old children who are hard of hearing (HH) were compared to those of children with normal hearing (NH). Method Language skills were measured via MLU in words and percent correct use of finite verb morphology in obligatory contexts based on spontaneous conversational samples gathered from 185 children (145 HH; 40 NH). Aided speech intelligibility index (aided SII), better ear pure tone average (BE-PTA), maternal education, and age of amplification were used to predict outcomes within the HH group. Results On average, the HH group had MLUws that were .25-.5 words shorter than the NH group at both ages and they produced fewer obligatory verb morphemes. After age, aided SII and age of amplification predicted MLUw. Aided SII and PTA were not interchangeable in this analysis. Age followed by either PTA or aided SII best predicted verb morphology use. Conclusions Children who are HH lag behind their NH peers in grammatical aspects of language. Although some children appear to catch up, more than half the children who were HH fell below the 25th percentile. Continued monitoring of language outcomes is warranted since children who are HH are at increased risk for language learning difficulties.

The Influence of Hearing Aid Use on Outcomes of Children With Mild Hearing Loss

“…As described at the beginning of this article, the current findings support the notion that grammar is particularly vulnerable to the effects of inconsistent auditory access, especially in the case of morphological markers that have short duration and reduced perceptual salience (e.g., third-person singular; "he walks"; Leonard, 1989). These results, in combination with others (Koehlinger et al, 2013;McGuckian & Henry, 2007), also highlight how early, consistent access to auditory information can serve as a protective mechanism for acquiring English morphological markers (as in the case of the full-time users). Note.…”

“…For example, McGuckian and Henry (2007) showed that 7-year-old children with moderate HL demonstrated poor performance on measures of English morphology. Koehlinger et al (2013) examined language samples of 3-and 6-year-old children in the OCHL cohort and found that children with more auditory access (i.e., better audibility and younger ages at HA fitting) produced more obligatory verb morphemes compared with children with less auditory access. As described at the beginning of this article, the current findings support the notion that grammar is particularly vulnerable to the effects of inconsistent auditory access, especially in the case of morphological markers that have short duration and reduced perceptual salience (e.g., third-person singular; "he walks"; Leonard, 1989).…”

“…. It stands to reason that children with HL will demonstrate optimal outcomes if (a) they are identified, fitted with amplification, and enrolled in intervention early in development during a period of optimal neuroplasticity (Sharma, Dorman, & Spahr, 2002); (b) the HAs provide adequate access to the speech spectrum (Koehlinger, Van Horne, & Moeller, 2013;Stika et al, 2015;Stiles, Bentler, & McGregor, 2012;Tomblin, Oleson, Ambrose, Walker, & Moeller, 2014); and (c) the HAs are worn on a consistent basis (Walker et al, 2013). Our hypothesis in the Outcomes of Children with Hearing Loss (OCHL) project is that children who are hard of hearing (including those with mild HL) will show individual differences in cumulative auditory experience.…”

Finite Verb Morphology in the Spontaneous Speech of Dutch-Speaking Children With Hearing Loss

“…The literature on children with CIs and HAs frequently reports delays in the acquisition of syntax and morphology, indicating that this is a vulnerable language area for both groups (Brown 1984;Elfenbein and Hardin-Jones 1994;Norbury et al 2001;Young & Killen 2002;Wake et al 2004;Borg et al 2007;Hansson et al 2007;McGuckian & Henry 2007;Geers et al 2009;Hawker et al 2008;Moeller et al 2010;Caselli et al 2012;Koehlinger et al 2013). These studies show that school-age children with hearing loss produce more errors in the production of different types of morphemes, including determiners (e.g., a, the), pronouns (e.g., me, him), plural nouns (e.g., apples), and past tense (e.g., he walked).…”

Service Delivery to Children With Mild Hearing Loss: Current Practice Patterns and Parent Perceptions

“…Further research has shown that daily HA use influences language outcomes in early school-age children with mild HL, particularly for morphosyntactic acquisition (Walker, Holte, et al, 2015). Access to high-frequency information is especially important because many English morphological markers consist of high-frequency, low-intensity phonemes (Koehlinger, Van Horne, & Moeller, 2013;Koehlinger, Van Horne, Oleson, McCreery, & Moeller, 2015;Stelmachowicz, Pittman, Hoover, & Lewis, 2002;Stelmachowicz, Pittman, Hoover, Lewis, & Moeller, 2004). Furthermore, children with mild HL will frequently encounter situations in which background noise and distance could have negative effects on the ability to learn language.…”