Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing Children Research Articles

Comparing parent and teacher ratings of emotional and behavioural difficulties in 5-year old children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing

ABSTRACTChildren who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) are at higher risk of developing mental health problems. This study reports on the parent and teacher ratings of emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) in 5-year old DHH children. It explores the similarities and differences between informants, and the risk and protective factors associated with parent and teacher-ratings of EBD. Parents and teachers of 224 DHH children completed questionnaires on children's EBD and functional auditory behaviour. Children completed standardized assessments of non-verbal cognitive and language abilities. On average, parent- and teacher-rated EBD were 0.42 and 0.20 standard deviations higher than typically developing children. Parents reported more behavioural problems (hyperactivity and conduct), whereas teachers reported poorer prosocial behaviour. Inter-rater correlations were generally low to moderate (0.29 to 0.50). Overall, children with additional disabilities, lower non-verbal cognitive ability, and poor functional auditory behaviour were at higher risk of EBD. Language ability was only a significant predictor of teacher-rated EBD for children with hearing aids but not cochlear implants. Differences in informant-ratings emphasize the need for a multi-informant approach to get a global perspective on the psychopathology of DHH children. The findings indicate that parents may need assistance with managing behavioural problems at home, and teachers should facilitate more opportunities to practice prosocial behaviour at school. Intervention efforts should focus on facilitating good functional listening skills, as this may in turn, improve the mental health of young DHH children.

Prosodic and segmental aspects of nonword repetition in 4- to 6-year-old children who are deaf and hard of hearing compared to controls with normal hearing

ABSTRACTChildren who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) are at an increased risk of speech and language deficits. Nonword repetition (NWR) is a potential predictor of problems with phonology, grammar and lexicon in DHH children. The aim of the present study was to examine repetition of prosodic features and segments in nonwords by DHH children compared to children with normal hearing (NH) and to relate NWR performance to measures of language ability and background variables. In this cross-sectional study, 14 Swedish-speaking children with mild–profound sensorineural hearing loss, aged 4–6 years, and 29 age-matched controls with NH and typical language development participated. The DHH children used cochlear implants (CI), hearing aids or a combination of both. The assessment materials included a prosodically controlled NWR task, as well as tests of phonological production, expressive grammar and receptive vocabulary. The DHH children performed below the children with NH on the repetition of tonal word accents, stress patterns, vowels and consonants, with consonants being hardest, and tonal word accents easiest, to repeat. NWR performance was also correlated with language ability, and to hearing level, in the DHH children. Both prosodic and segmental features of nonwords are problematic for Swedish-speaking DHH children compared to children with NH, but performance on tonal word accent repetition is comparably high. NWR may have potential as a clinically useful tool for identification of children who are in need of speech and language intervention.

Use of the Brief Shame and Guilt Questionnaire in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Adolescents.

No assessment tools are available to measure shame and guilt in children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), while these self-conscious emotions might play a role in the frequently noted social and behavioral problems in this group. Therefore, the aim of this study was to validate the Brief Shame and Guilt Questionnaire (BSGQ) in DHH children. In addition, we examined associations of shame and guilt with social anxiety, self-esteem, delinquency, and psychopathic behaviors. A sum of 225 hearing (Mage = 11.62 years) and 108 DHH (Mage = 11.82 years) participants completed the self-report BSGQ. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor structure (i.e., shame and guilt) of the BSGQ in the DHH group. Measurement invariance was established across both groups. However, the DHH group reported lower levels of self-conscious emotions in comparison with the hearing group. The BSGQ showed good concurrent validity, where shame was associated with higher levels of social anxiety and lower levels of self-esteem, and guilt was associated with lower levels of delinquency and psychopathic behavior in both groups. Future research should investigate the potential behavioral consequences of lower reported levels of self-conscious emotions in DHH youth.

Acquisition of the alphabetic principle in deaf and hard-of-hearing preschoolers: the role of phonology in letter-sound learning

Mastery of the alphabetic principle necessitates learning letter–sound correspondences. In this study, we found evidence of the importance of spoken phonology in the letter–sound learning of 89 deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) preschoolers. Only DHH children with at least some ability to perceive speech were included in the study. DHH children were more likely to know letter sounds for which the corresponding letter name contains a phonological cue (e.g., d as opposed to h), a phenomenon robustly observed in hearing children (e.g., Treiman, Weatherston, & Berch, 1994). However, unlike the pattern observed in hearing children, DHH children benefited more from phonological cues that are at the end of letter names (e.g., m) rather than the beginning (e.g., b). DHH children’s letter-sound knowledge was strongly associated with phonological awareness—and phoneme-level skills in particular. Despite less differentiated phonological representations, DHH children seem to rely on similar processes to hearing children as they begin to acquire the alphabetic principle, with spoken phonology playing an important role.

Peer victimization experienced by children and adolescents who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Victimization is a relatively common, yet serious problem, with potentially severe consequences for children's psychosocial and academic functioning. Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH) may be at a higher risk for victimization than hearing children. The aims of the present study were to compare DHH and hearing children on i) self-reported experiences of victimization and ii) associations between victimization, parental- and child variables. In total 188 children (mean age 11;11 years) from the Netherlands and Dutch-speaking part of Belgium participated in the study. No difference between DHH and hearing children were found on general experiences of victimization. However, differences between the groups were found on specific forms of experienced victimization and on the associations between victimization and parental variables. For DHH children, parental sensitivity and parents who challenge their DHH children to become competent in the practical, emotional, cognitive and social domain is associated with them being less victimized. For hearing children at this age these relations were reversed, absent or more complex. Finally, DHH children in special schools were more victimized than DHH children in regular schools. It can be concluded that parents can play an important role in reducing social problems experienced by DHH children and young adolescents.

Pathways Underlying Somatic Complaints in Children and Adolescents Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Frequent somatic complaints are not only a problem in themselves but also related to other difficulties. So far, no conclusive findings have been reported about the prevalence of and factors underlying these complaints in children and adolescents who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). Such information would be valuable for prevention and intervention. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of somatic complaints and their relation with emotional functioning in DHH youngsters, as compared with hearing youngsters. This was established by assessing how somatic complaints, mood states, and sense of coherence were experienced by 186 Dutch participants (mean age = 11;07 years). DHH and hearing groups were compared using multivariate analysis of variance and structural equation modeling. The results showed that somatic complaints were reported equally often for both groups, but that the pathways leading to these complaints were partly different. Only in DHH participants were feelings of fear associated with more somatic complaints. The results suggest that DHH children and adolescents would benefit from support in the regulation of fear and its causes. Other aspects affecting adjustment outcomes of DHH youngsters were education type and communication mode.

The Comprehension and Production of Wh-Questions in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

Hearing loss during the critical period for language acquisition restricts spoken language input. This input limitation, in turn, may hamper syntactic development. This study examined the comprehension, production, and repetition of Wh-questions in deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The participants were 11 orally trained Hebrew-speaking children aged 9.1-12.4 with moderate-to-profound hearing loss from birth, who consistently used hearing aids or cochlear implants and who had difficulties understanding relative clauses. Experiment 1 tested the comprehension of Wh-questions using a picture selection task, comparing subject with object questions and who- with which-questions; Experiment 2 tested the production of subject and object who-questions using an elicitation task; and Experiment 3 tested the repetition of Wh-questions and other structures derived by Wh-movement. All the DHH participants showed difficulty in the comprehension, production, and repetition of object questions, and their performance was significantly below that of hearing children. In contrast, they repeated embedded sentences without movement well, indicating that their deficit is in syntactic movement rather than embedding or the CP node in the syntactic tree. The results provide additional evidence that DHH children have difficulties with Wh-movement and emphasize that Wh-questions, which are crucial for communication, can be severely impaired in these children.