Abstract
Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) are likely to exhibit difficulties in development of psychosocial skills, pragmatic language skills, and use of hearing for social communication in real-world environments. Some evidence suggests that pragmatic language use affects peer-relationships and school engagement in these children. However, no studies have investigated the influence of functional auditory performance and use of language and speech in real-world environments on children’s behavior and emotion, and on their health-related quality of life. This study explored the relationship in DHH children at 9 years of age. Data from 144 participants of the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment study were analyzed. Parent reports were obtained on quality of life, behavior and emotion, pragmatic language skills, and auditory functional performance of children in real life. Children’s spoken language abilities and speech intelligibility were assessed by research speech pathologists. On average, performance of children in all domains was within the range of typically developing peers. There were significant associations among functional auditory performance, use of speech and language skills, psychosocial skills, and quality of life. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that better auditory functional performance and pragmatic language skills, rather than structural language abilities, were associated with better psychosocial abilities and quality of life. The novel findings highlight the importance of targeted intervention for improving functional hearing skills and social communication abilities in DHH children, and emphasize the importance of collaborative approaches among medical, audiology, allied health, and educational professionals to identify those at risk so that timely referral and intervention can be implemented for improving psychosocial health and well-being in DHH children.
Highlights
Past research suggests that children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) are at greater risk than their hearing peers for poor psychosocial functioning [1,2,3,4,5,6] and poor quality of life (QOL: e.g., [4,7,8,9])
We showed that assessments of pragmatic skills, which are founded on structural language skills, have greater relevance than do tests of structural language abilities for identifying DHH children who may be at risk for psychosocial well-being and QOL
This study found that on average, DHH children achieved scores within one standard deviations (SDs) of population mean for parent-reported behavior and emotion and health-related quality of life at 9 years of age
Summary
Past research suggests that children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) are at greater risk than their hearing peers for poor psychosocial functioning [1,2,3,4,5,6] and poor quality of life (QOL: e.g., [4,7,8,9]). Found a small but significant advantage in self-reported QOL scores for a group of 43 adolescents with cochlear implants (CIs) as compared to their hearing peers. Found no differences in self-esteem or ability to socialize one-on-one in a small study comparing 10 five- to six-year-old CI users with 6 hearing children, and Sarant et al [12]. The aim of the current research was to shed light on this important issue
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