Phonological Awareness, Vocabulary, and Word Reading in Children Who Use Cochlear Implants: Does Age of Implantation Explain Individual Variability in Performance Outcomes and Growth?

Abstract

The phonological awareness (PA), vocabulary, and word reading abilities of 19 children with cochlear implants (CI) were assessed. Nine children had an implant early (between 2 and 3.6 years) and 10 had an implant later (between 5 and 7 years). Participants were tested twice over a 12-month period on syllable, rhyme, and phoneme awareness (see James et al., 2005). Performance of CI users was compared against younger hearing children matched for reading level. Two standardized assessments of vocabulary and single word reading were administered. As a group, the children fitted early had better performance outcomes on PA, vocabulary, and reading compared to hearing benchmark groups. The early group had significant growth on rhyme awareness, whereas the late group showed no significant gains in PA over time. There was wide individual variation in performance and growth in the CI users. Two participants with the best overall development were both fitted with an implant late in childhood.

Computer-assisted training of phoneme–grapheme correspondence for children who are deaf and hard of hearing: Effects on phonological processing skills

“…This finding supports earlier studies regarding the heterogeneity in this population and confirms the importance of not relying solely on mean scores when interpreting the data [1,42]. The Nonword repetition task involves both perception and production.…”

Research Methods in Studying Reading and Literacy Development in Deaf Children Who Sign

“…Waters & Doehring, 1990); single word reading (e.g. James, Rajput, Brinton & Goswami, 2008;Kyle & Harris, 2006; grammatical and syntactic knowledge (e.g. Lillo-Martin, Hanson, & Smith, 1991); and text comprehension (e.g.…”

“…Instead, researchers frequently devise picture based assessments, especially when measuring phonological awareness (e.g. Harris & Beech, 1998;Kyle & Harris, 2006;James et al, 2008) and memory (e.g. Harris & Moreno, 2004;Kyle & Harris, 2006).…”

“…Likewise, it is essential for children to know the vocabulary involved in a phonological awareness task in order to be able to make phonological judgments about the items. Researchers often address this issue by pre-testing children on the items or pictures to ensure that the items are familiar and that they have the correct label for each item (see James et al, 2008;Harris & Moreno, 2004;Kyle & Harris, 2006).…”

Listening skill progress in children with cochlear implants in the first three months after implantation

“…Researchers have reported that the use of cochlear implants in early childhood leads to a shorter period of deafness and is linked to better performances than many children implanted later in childhood on measures of speech, language and reading. [3][4][5][6][7] The earlier the implantation, the more likely the child will develop hearing, speech, language and cognitive skills at a level similar to a normal hearing child. They can be educated in mainstream schools leading to the same career opportunities.…”