Deaf And Hard-of-hearing Children Research Articles

Working Memory-Based Cognitive Rehabilitation: Spoken Language of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children.

This research examined the effect of the Working Memory-based Cognitive Rehabilitation (WMCR) intervention on the spoken language development of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. In this clinical trial study, 28 DHH children aged between 5 and 6years were selected by random sampling method. The participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in the WMCR intervention involving 11 sessions. All participants were assessed pre-and postintervention. Data were collected by the Newsha Development Scale and analyzed through MANCOVA. The results revealed a significant difference between the scores of the receptive and expressive language of the experimental group that were exposed to the WMCR intervention compared with the control group. The receptive and expressive language skills of the experimental group indicated a significant improvement after the intervention. Therefore, the WMCR intervention is an effective method that affects the spoken language skills of DHH children. These findings have critical implications for teachers, parents, and therapists in supporting DHH young children to develop their language skills.

Deaf and hard of hearing plus: Preliminary estimates of child and parent functioning.

Children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) with additional special needs ("DHHPlus") have complex differences in psychological development that, when combined with aspects of their environment, often place them at an increased risk for psychological challenges. Further, their combination of special needs places unique demands on their parents. Despite the high proportion of DHH children in this particular subgroup, little research has been done to identify estimates of broad psychological functioning, the parent-child relationship, parent stressors, and parent satisfaction with resources independent of other samples. This study addresses that gap through collecting preliminary data on broad psychological functioning and related parent-child variables in a sample of children who are DHHPlus. Thirty-one primary caregivers of children who were DHH with additional medical and/or mental health diagnoses completed several questionnaires about their child and family, including the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC-3) Parent Rating Scale, BASC-2 Parenting Relationship Questionnaire, and Family Stress Scale. The current DHHPlus sample was separated into two subgroups by age, including a preschool group (ages 2-5 years, n = 14) and child group (ages 6-11, n = 17) for visual comparison of mean scores with respective normative and clinical samples from each measure. When compared to normative and clinical samples, parents of DHHPlus children endorsed more concerns about their child's behavior, adaptive skills, the parent-child relationship, and higher levels of family-related stress, with a unique rank order of family stressors. Results provide initial child and parent estimates to support assessment and treatment services for this diverse and underserved population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Contribution of Linguistic Skills to Word Reading in DHH Students.

This study aims to examine the relative contributions of phonological awareness (PA), orthographical awareness (OA), morphological awareness (MA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) to word reading accuracy and fluency in Chinese deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students. Measures of PA, OA, MA, RAN, word reading accuracy, and word reading fluency were administered to 133 DHH and 127 hearing students in Grades 4-6. After controlling for chronological age, hierarchical regression analysis showed that PA made an independent contribution to word reading accuracy and fluency among the DHH students. The unique effect of OA was significant on word reading accuracy in DHH students; whereas, its predictive role was played on word reading fluency in hearing students. RAN accounted for additional variance only in word reading accuracy in DHH students. MA significantly explained the variance in both reading abilities and in both groups. This suggests that for DHH students, they use nonphonological clues (MA and OA) to learn to read. To a lesser degree, however, they do rely on PA to reading words. For hearing students, they mainly rely on MA to their word reading. There are some similarities and differences in the mechanisms underlying word reading in DHH and hearing children.

Characterizing North Carolina's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants and Toddlers: Predictors of Vocabulary, Diagnosis, and Intervention.

This study sought to (a) characterize the demographic, audiological, and intervention variability in a population of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) children receiving state services for hearing loss; (b) identify predictors of vocabulary delays; and (c) evaluate factors influencing the success and timing of early identification and intervention efforts at a state level. One hundred DHH infants and toddlers (aged 4-36 months) enrolled in early intervention completed the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories, and detailed information about their audiological and clinical history was collected. We examined the influence of demographic, clinical, and audiological factors on vocabulary outcomes and early intervention efforts. We found that this sample showed spoken language vocabulary delays (production) relative to hearing peers and showed room for improvement in rates of early diagnosis and intervention. These delays in vocabulary and early support services were predicted by an overlapping subset of hearing-, health-, and home-related variables. In a diverse sample of DHH children receiving early intervention, we identify variables that predict delays in vocabulary and early support services, which reflected both dimensions that are immutable, and those that clinicians and caretakers can potentially alter. We provide a discussion on the implications for clinical practice. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19449839.

Theory of Mind and Alexithymia in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Young Adults

The aim of the current study was to examine theory of mind (ToM), the ability to infer the mental states of others, in young adults who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), and to explore the influence of alexithymia, an inability to understand emotions of the self and others, on ToM performance in this group. Compared to participants with typical hearing, DHH participants displayed significantly lower affective ToM skills and greater alexithymia. After accounting for verbal intelligence quotient, hearing status and alexithymia significantly contributed to poorer ToM performance, accounting for over 14% of the variance. Having a parent who is deaf and being part of the Deaf community were associated with better emotion processing and appear to be important protective factors. Findings provide support that ToM difficulties may linger into young adulthood among DHH individuals and that alexithymia may be a contributing factor. Early intervention programs emphasizing emotional understanding, perspective-taking, and communication skills are warranted for DHH children as well as their caregivers.

Math abilities in deaf and hard of hearing children: The role of language in developing number concepts.

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children who are not exposed to fluent sign language from birth generally fall behind their hearing peers in mathematics. These disparities are pervasive and emerge as young as 3 years old and continue throughout adulthood. While these limitations have been well-documented, there has been little attempt to empirically explain why one consequence of deafness seems to reflect difficulties with numbers and mathematics. The purpose of this review is to describe the math abilities of DHH children while providing an explanation as to why we see this disparity. In particular, we review evidence suggesting that limited/reduced language access, particularly in the first few months of life, may play a role in delaying the acquisition of early number concepts and its potential interference when solving math problems. We also consider the potential role executive functions, specifically working memory, play in mathematical learning and how lower working memory capacity seen in some DHH children may impact early numerical learning and task performance. Finally, we propose future research aimed to explain why deafness is often accompanied by difficulties in numerical cognition while informing our broader understanding of the relationship between language and numerical concepts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Benefits of Parent Training in the Rehabilitation of Deaf or Hard of Hearing Children of Hearing Parents: A Systematic Review.

The present study is a systematic review on the effectiveness of Parent Training (PT) and coaching in deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) rehabilitation programs which reviews and synthesizes the existing body of evidence to assess the benefits of these programs in enhancing parents’ sensitivity, responsivity and promoting language development in DHH children during the first years after HA fitting or CI activation. Five published studies met the Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcomes (PICO) inclusion criteria and were eligible to be included, but heterogeneity in terms of the study design, interventions and outcomes did not allow for performing a meta-analysis. All included studies shared the view that a parent’s learning is a circular (rather than frontal) process, and the results appear promising in terms of enhancing parents’ responsiveness and promoting DHH child language development. Nevertheless, the available evidence was judged to not be robust enough due to limitations in the studies’ designs. Further high-quality evidence is needed to evaluate the true degree of clinical value and the cost effectiveness of PT programs aimed at increasing parents’ responsiveness to their DHH children.

Perspectives on education, experience of hearing loss, and well-being among Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and their parents

ABSTRACT This paper reports a questionnaire study about education, the experience of hearing loss, and well-being among 77 Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) adolescents aged 11–16 and 208 parents of DHH children. It is one of few studies that explore the subjective perspectives and experiences of DHH children and their parents. The study found that adolescents had a more negative perspective on hearing loss than parents reported: they were more likely to consider their hearing loss a disability, to report performing below average at school, and to report trying to conceal their cochlear implant. The study also found that parents of adolescents were more likely than parents of younger children to report concerns about their child's performance at school and their future prospects. The paper discusses findings in relation to previous research showing the particular struggles of DHH adolescents and highlights the need for focused support for communication, social and educational challenges.

Correlates of Korean Hangul Reading in Children With Hearing Loss.

This study examined the associations of vocabulary and phonological and orthographic awareness with Hangul word reading in Korean children, aged between 7 and 10years, who were deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and children with typical hearing (TH). The participants were 24 children with hearing aids (HAs), 24 children with cochlear implants (CIs), and 24 TH children in Korea. The three groups were matched for chronological age, vocabulary age, and nonverbal intelligence. Results showed that there were no differences between children with CIs and those with HAs in reading fluency and cognitive skills, except word-reading accuracy, whereas children with CIs and HAs were delayed in all measures compared with their TH peers. Regression analyses showed that syllable and phoneme awareness uniquely explained word-reading accuracy in children with DHH and those with TH. However, word-reading fluency was uniquely explained by syllable awareness in the DHH children and by vocabulary and orthographic awareness in the TH children. These results suggest that DHH and TH children in Korea rely on phonological awareness for Korean word recognition. However, DHH and TH Korean children tend to use different strategies based on sublexical versus lexical information, respectively, to read Korean words fluently.

Developmental outcomes of deaf preschool-aged children with cochlear implants

ABSTRACT In research on the psychological development of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children, there is a wealth of studies focused on aspects such as speech and language, communication, and social-emotional development, but some other spheres have been disregarded. This study looks more generally at the developmental outcomes of DHH children who use cochlear implants (CIs). The participants were one group of DHH children 3 and 4 years old who used a CI and another age-matched control group with normal hearing and typical development (the TD group). The Psychomotor Development Evaluation Cards were used to evaluate the groups. Additionally, information about deafness, the CI, and health of the child and mother was obtained from medical records. For 3-year-olds, DHH children had lower scores than TD children in motor development, communication and speech, behavioural development, and knowledge and learning. However, 4-year-old DHH children had lower scores than TD children only in the social-emotional domain. In the 4-year-olds, positive correlations were also found between speech and communication development and knowledge and learning. Our results show that it is essential to offer early holistic support to DHH children who use a CI in terms of their global development, including social-emotional development.

Telepractice effects: Vowel space characteristics in deaf and hard-of-hearing pediatric patient, provider and caregiver speech

When talkers are aware of speech perception difficulty on the part of the listener due to adverse conditions, they will adopt a “clear speech” style that provides the listener with more salient acoustic cues to access and comprehend the message. Does the use of telepractice affect the vowel articulation in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) pediatric patients, providers and caregivers? This study examined the phonetic modification of the vowel space area in speech of DHH children with cochlear implants (CI) (n = 7, mean age 4 years 11 months), their caregivers and a speech-language pathologist (SLP) during one 30-min in-person and one sequential tele-session, order counterbalanced. The first and second formants of vowels /i/, /a/ and /u/ in child, provider and caregiver productions were measured and vowel space area was calculated. The preliminary analysis including four child-mother dyads demonstrated a significantly larger vowel space area in speech of DHH children and the SLP in the tele- compared to the in-person session. No significant difference in the caregiver vowel space area was identified. The results suggest that DHH children and the clinical provider adjust their vowel articulation in order to accommodate the listener during tele- compared to in-person speech-language intervention.

Emotions in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing and Typically Hearing Children.

For deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children living in an environment where their access to linguistic input and social interactions is compromised, learning emotions could be difficult, which may further affect social functioning. To understand the role of emotion in DHH children’s social life, this study investigated emotional functioning (i.e., emotion recognition, empathy, emotion expression), and its relation with social functioning (i.e., social competence and externalizing behaviors), in 55 DHH children and 74 children with typical hearing (aged 3–10 years; Mage = 6.04). Parental reports on children’s emotional and social functioning and factors related to DHH children’s hearing were collected. Results showed similar levels of emotional and social functioning in children with and without hearing loss. Use of auditory intervention and speech perception did not correlate with any measures in DHH children. In both groups, higher levels of empathy related to higher social competence and fewer externalizing behaviors; emotion recognition and positive emotion expression were unrelated to either aspect of social functioning. Higher levels of negative emotion expression related to lower social competence in both groups, but to more externalizing behaviors in DHH children only. DHH children in less linguistically accessible environments may not have adequate knowledge for appropriately expressing negative emotions socially.

Family ASL: An Early Start to Equitable Education for Deaf Children.

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children experience systematic barriers to equitable education due to intentional or unintentional ableist views that can lead to a general lack of awareness about the value of natural sign languages, and insufficient resources supporting sign language development. Furthermore, an imbalance of information in favor of spoken languages often stems from a phonocentric perspective that views signing as an inferior form of communication that also hinders development of spoken language. To the contrary, research demonstrates that early adoption of a natural sign language confers critical protection from the risks of language deprivation without endangering spoken language development. In this position paper, we draw attention to deep societal biases about language in information presented to parents of DHH children, against early exposure to a natural sign language. We outline actions that parents and professionals can adopt to maximize DHH children's chances for on-time language development.

Signing and the Brain: The Importance of Early Education for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

Language skills are developed as one is exposed to auditory input from birth to adolescence. However, a majority of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals do not receive adequate—or appropriate—guidance from their parents at an early age. Since the brain develops significantly during the early years of childhood, children need robust and persistent instruction to develop the ability to recognize language. DHH children who lack the ability to perceive audio and spoken language, the universal language format, have poor outcomes in the future. In fact, hearing-disabled Americans are more likely to be unemployed, imprisoned, or have poor physical health. This paper will discuss the obstacles DHH people face in society as well as introduce a program to improve the standard of living for the deaf community. It will focus on preventative methods, most importantly, the adoption of a visual language, to protect DHH children from facing major neurological issues that would intrude on their ability to communicate with others fluently.

Improving post-earthquake evacuation preparedness for deaf and hard of hearing children: A conceptual framework

Immersive Virtual Reality Serious Games (IVR SG) are being used more frequently as training tools to enhance the preparedness and response of different community groups in the event of disasters such as earthquakes. In this paper, we aim to understand the pedagogical and behavioural considerations for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) children in the school context and its connection to the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) framework. A systematic literature review was used as the main methodology of this paper. The main findings proved a strong relationship between the pedagogical and behavioural factors with the 4Rs (Readiness, Reduction, Response, and Recovery), and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) approach. The factors are particularly connected to the readiness and reduction stages, and IVR SG training tools need to be integrated within a holistic disaster reduction plan. The factors to ensure success of this integrated conceptual framework use an innovative tool such as an IVR SG based on DHH children's needs and abilities and can be adapted to their school environment. All the findings throughout this paper build a strong theoretical foundation for the usage of a VR SG-based training tool to enhance DHH children's post-earthquake evacuation preparedness in a school's content.

Psychometric properties of the Inventory of Life Quality in children and adolescents in Norwegian Sign Language

BackgroundSeveral studies have assessed the Quality of Life (QoL) in Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children and adolescents. The findings from these studies, however, vary from DHH children reporting lower QoL than their typically hearing (TH) peers to similar QoL and even higher QoL. These differences have been attributed to contextual and individual factors such as degree of access to communication, the participants’ age as well as measurement error. Using written instead of sign language measures has been shown to underestimate mental health symptoms in DHH children and adolescents. It is expected that translating generic QoL measures into sign language will help gain more accurate reports from DHH children and adolescents, thus eliminating one of the sources for the observed differences in research conclusions. Hence, the aim of the current study is to translate the Inventory of Life Quality in Children and Adolescents into Norwegian Sign Language (ILC-NSL) and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the self-report of the ILC-NSL and the written Norwegian version (ILC-NOR) for DHH children and adolescents. The parent report was included for comparison. Associations between child self-report and parent-report are also provided.MethodsFifty-six DHH children completed the ILC-NSL and ILC-NOR in randomized order while their parents completed the parent-report of the ILC-NOR and a questionnaire on hearing- and language-related information. Internal consistency was examined using Dillon-Goldstein’s rho and Cronbach’s alpha, ILC-NSL and ILC-NOR were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients. Construct validity was examined by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).ResultsRegarding reliability, the internal consistency was established as acceptable to good, whereas the comparison of the ILC-NSL with the ILC-NOR demonstrated closer correspondence for the adolescent version of the ILC than for the child version. The construct validity, as evaluated by PLS-SEM, resulted in an acceptable fit for the proposed one-factor model for both language versions for adolescents as well as the complete sample.ConclusionThe reliability and validity of the ILC-NSL seem promising, especially for the adolescent version, even though the validation was based on a small sample of DHH children and adolescents.

The Writing Process and the Written Product in Bimodal Bilingual Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

How does bimodal bilingualism—a signed and a spoken language—influence the writing process or the written product? The writing outcomes of twenty deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children and hearing children of deaf adults (CODA) (mean 11.6 years) with similar bimodal bilingual backgrounds were analyzed. During the writing of a narrative text, a keylogging tool was used that generated detailed information about the participants’ writing process and written product. Unlike earlier studies that have repeatedly shown that monolingual hearing children outperform their DHH peers in writing, there were few differences between the groups that likely were caused by their various hearing backgrounds, such as in their lexical density. Signing knowledge was negatively correlated with writing flow and pauses before words, and positively correlated with deleted characters, but these did not affect the written product negatively. Instead, they used different processes to reach similar texts. This study emphasizes the importance of including and comparing participants with similar language experience backgrounds. It may be deceptive to compare bilingual DHH children with hearing children with other language backgrounds, risking showing language differences. This should always be controlled for through including true control groups with similar language experience as the examined groups.

Naturalistic Use of Aspect Morphology in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children.

Grammatical morphology often links small acoustic forms to abstract semantic domains. Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children have reduced access to the acoustic signal and frequently have delayed acquisition of grammatical morphology (e.g., Tomblin, Harrison, Ambrose, Walker, Oleson & Moeller, 2015). This study investigated the naturalistic use of aspectual morphology in DHH children to determine if they organize this semantic domain as normal hearing (NH) children have been found to do. Thirty DHH children (M = 6;8) and 29 NH children (M = 5;11) acquiring English participated in a free-play session and their tokens of perfective (simple past) and imperfective (-ing) morphology were coded for the lexical aspect of the predicate they marked. Both groups showed established prototype effects, favoring perfective + telic and imperfective + atelic pairings over perfective + atelic and perfective + atelic ones. Thus, despite reduced access to the acoustic signal, this DHH group was unimpaired for aspectual organization.

The effects of cochlear implants on sequential time perception

ABSTRACT The study aimed to improve sequential time perception among deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children with and without cochlear implants (CIs) by administering an intervention programme using virtual-reality (VR) technology. The study included 55 children 7–10 years old who were divided into 3 groups: DHH children with CIs, DHH children without CIs, and a control group of typically-hearing children. Pre- and post- the intervention (8 weekly individual meetings), participants completed a sequential time measure. Results indicated that at pre-intervention, DHH children demonstrated less sequential time perception compared to typically-hearing children. Following the intervention, both research groups demonstrated significant improvement in sequential time perception. However, the improvement was much more significant in the group of children without CIs. Moreover, DHH children who received implants after the age of language acquisition (postlingually) showed a greater improvement in this measure compared to children who received implants prior to the age of language acquisition (prelingually).

The Spoken Language Checklist: A User-Friendly Normed Language Acquisition Checklist.

There are many variables having an impact on the spoken language acquisition of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children; therefore, it is critical for parents and professionals to have appropriate tools to monitor language acquisition. The Spoken Language Checklist (SLC) was developed to monitor and identify developmental milestones in a user-friendly checklist format that includes norms. The availability of the SLC will help parents and professionals to monitor the spoken language development of DHH children and provide interventions that should any delays be observed. Recognizing these delays early could prevent any insurmountable effects for cognitive development and further language development.