Abstract
Studies have shown that children vary in the trajectories of their language development after cochlear implant (CI) activation. The aim of the present study is to assess the preverbal and lexical development of a group of 20 Italian-speaking children observed longitudinally before CI activation and at three, 6 and 12 months after CI surgery (mean age at the first session: 17.5 months; SD: 8.3; and range: 10–35). The group of children with CIs (G-CI) was compared with two groups of normally-hearing (NH) children, one age-matched (G-NHA; mean age at the first session: 17.4 months; SD: 8.0; and range: 10–34) and one language-matched (G-NHL; n = 20; mean age at the first session: 11.2 months; SD: 0.4; and range: 11–12). The spontaneous interactions between children and their mothers during free-play were transcribed. Preverbal babbling production and first words were considered for each child. Data analysis showed significant differences in babbling and word production between groups, with a lower production of words in children with CIs compared to the G-NHA group and a higher production of babbling compared to the G-NHL children. Word production 1 year after activation was significantly lower for the children with CIs than for language-matched children only when maternal education was controlled for. Furthermore, latent class growth analysis showed that children with CIs belonged mainly to classes that exhibited a low level of initial production but also progressive increases over time. Babbling production had a statistically significant effect on lexical growth but not on class membership, and only for groups showing slower and constant increases. Results highlight the importance of preverbal vocal patterns for later lexical development and may support families and speech therapists in the early identification of risk and protective factors for language delay in children with CIs.
Highlights
Several studies have shown that early language emerges from the interaction of several components, such as phono-articulatory skills and perceptual abilities, and that its development involves both common patterns and individual trajectories (Kuhl and Meltzoff, 1982; Hoff, 2013; Kuhl et al, 2014; Vihman, 2014)
The present study aims to investigate the trajectories of preverbal production and first words and the role of preverbal production in affecting lexical growth by looking at three groups of children, one of children with cochlear implant (CI) and two of NH children, one matched for chronological age (G-NHA) and the other matched for language level (G-NHL), in interaction with their mothers
The 20 children in the G-NHA group (10 males and 10 females) were individually matched with the group of children with CIs (G-CI) children according to their chronological age at T1, while the 20 children (9 males and 11 females) in the G-NHL group were individually matched with the G-CI children according to their linguistic level at T2
Summary
Several studies have shown that early language emerges from the interaction of several components, such as phono-articulatory skills and perceptual abilities, and that its development involves both common patterns and individual trajectories (Kuhl and Meltzoff, 1982; Hoff, 2013; Kuhl et al, 2014; Vihman, 2014). A child’s babble contains recognizable linguistic sounds (McGillion et al, 2017): this makes the caregiver more responsive to the child’s initiatives than to other types of simple vocal production, creating more opportunities for interactions that resemble “proto-conversations” (Bloom et al, 1987; Gros-Louis et al, 2006) and more opportunities for the child to learn the phonological patterns of the adult target words (Goldstein and Schwade, 2008) By virtue of their greater articulatory experience (Majorano et al, 2014) and adult speech exposure, children who are at a more advanced stage of preverbal production should show more advanced lexical development later on. In line with this idea, observational studies have found an association between preverbal production (in particular babbling) and early words-production in children with typical development (Oller et al, 1999; Majorano et al, 2014; McGillion et al, 2017) and in children with language delay (Rescorla et al, 2000; Keren-Portnoy et al, 2009)
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