ABSTRACT
The aims of this study were to examine vocabulary scores of 5-year-old children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), as well as the impact of early enrollment in specialized intervention on vocabulary outcomes. Receptive and expressive vocabulary scores were analyzed for 342 five-year-old children who are DHH enrolled in specialized listening and spoken language intervention programs. Regression analyses were utilized to examine the effects of age at enrollment on vocabulary outcomes. Overall, participants achieved scores within normal test limits on receptive and expressive measures of vocabulary. Children who enrolled in intervention prior to 28 months of age had better vocabulary skills at 5 years old. The findings support that children who are DHH can understand and produce vocabulary at skill levels commensurate with their typically hearing peers, regardless of severity of hearing loss. Results highlight the crucial impact of specialized programs on children's lexical readiness to participate in general education settings by kindergarten.
Subject(s)
Deafness , Hearing Loss , Age Factors , Child, Preschool , Early Intervention, Educational , Hearing , Humans , Language Development , Persons With Hearing Impairments , VocabularyABSTRACT
This study examined the relationships between adult language input and child language production in regard to the quantity and diversity of spoken language, as well as children's knowledge of basic concepts and vocabulary. The quantity and diversity of language provided by teachers and parents were related to children's language output and knowledge. Language ENvironment Analysis technology audio-recorded the language environments of 26 preschool children with hearing loss over 2 days. The language samples were analyzed for quantity (adult word count, child vocalization count, and conversational turn count) and diversity (lexical diversity, syntactical complexity, and clausal complexity) of language. Results indicated a relationship between adult language input and child language production, but only in regard to the quantity of language. Significant differences between the teachers and parents were reported in regard to the diversity of adult language input. These results suggest that the language input provided by adults across environments (school versus home) is considerably different and warrants further investigation.
Subject(s)
Child Language , Hearing Loss/psychology , Social Environment , Speech , Age Factors , Child, Preschool , Education of Hearing Disabled , Female , Humans , Male , VocabularyABSTRACT
The researchers investigated the effects of adult language input on the quantity of language, vocabulary development, and understanding of basic concepts of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children who used listening and spoken language. Using audio recording and Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) software, the study involved 30 preschool DHH children who used spoken language as their communication modality and 11 typically hearing same-age peers. The children's language and the language spoken to them during all waking hours over a 2-day period (16 hours per day) were recorded and analyzed quantitatively and were compared to the children's performance on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The results highlight the relationship between the quantity of adult language and the language, vocabulary, and basic concept knowledge of DHH preschool children who use listening and spoken language.
