Relations between word meanings and identification of words in spoken sentences by hearing-impaired children

Abstract

To examine effects of contextual words upon the identification of test words in sentences, 21 hearing-impaired children, 7–12 yr of age, received word-discrimination training followed by sentence testing. Word-discrimination training was conducted to ensure that children could discriminate the contextual words in isolation. The subsequent sentence testing was the more important phase of the experiment, since it permitted observation of the use of contextual cues to facilitate the identification of the correct test word. The relationship between the contextual words and test words was either congruous, incongruous, or neutral, as predetermined from normative data. After hearing each sentence, children decided whether they had heard the test word or its alternative. The alternative word differed in either the initial or final consonant. Significantly more correct discriminations were made on congruous and neutral sentences than on incongruous sentences. These results indicated that hearing-impaired children used contextual cues to identify the correct alternative.