Language development of Chinese-speaking hearing-impaired children: The roles of home literacy resources and shared book reading

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the specific components of home literacy resources (HLR) and parental behaviours during shared book reading (SBR) that may contribute to the language development of Chinese-speaking hearing-impaired children. A total of 90 Chinese-speaking hearing-impaired children aged 3 to 6 years, along with their parents, participated in this study. Following the design of previous studies, we required the parents to complete a questionnaire regarding HLR and parental SBR behaviours, and their hearing-impaired children received a standardised language test. The results showed that such HLR components as storybook capacity at home, weekly frequency of SBR, duration per SBR session, starting age of SBR, and the parental SBR behaviour, parent and child discussing opinions with each other, could significantly account for an additional portion of the variance in children's receptive, expressive, and overall language beyond the demographic variables. It is thus recommended that clinicians share this evidence-based information with parents who have hearing-impaired children to help their children develop language to their fullest potential.