Receptive Vocabulary Scores Research Articles

Language and verbal reasoning skills in adolescents with 10 or more years of cochlear implant experience.

The purpose of this study is to identify factors predictive of successful English language outcomes in adolescents who received a cochlear implant (CI) between 2 and 5 yrs of age. All 112 participants had been part of a previous study examining English language outcomes at the age of 8 and 9 yrs with CIs. The participants were given a battery of language and verbal reasoning tests in their preferred communication mode along with measures of working memory (digit span) and verbal rehearsal speed (sentence repetition duration). The degree to which students' language performance was enhanced when sign was added to spoken language was estimated at both test sessions. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to document factors contributing to overall language outcomes. A substantial proportion of the adolescents obtained test scores within or above 1SD compared with hearing age-mates in the tests' normative samples: 71% on a verbal intelligence test, 68% on a measure of language content, 71% on receptive vocabulary, and 74% on expressive vocabulary. Improvement in verbal intelligence scores over an 8-yr interval exceeded expectation based on age-mates in the test's normative sample. Better English language outcomes were associated with shorter duration of deafness before cochlear implantation, higher nonverbal intelligence, higher family socioeconomic status, longer digit spans, and faster verbal rehearsal speed as measured by sentence repetition rate. Students whose current receptive vocabulary scores were not enhanced by the addition of signs also exhibited higher English language scores than those without sign enhancement; however, sign enhancement demonstrated in the elementary school years was not predictive of later high-school language skills. Results of this study support the provision of CIs to children at the youngest age possible. In addition, it highlights the substantial role that cognition plays in later language outcomes. Although the students' use of sign to enhance language skills during the elementary years does not appear to have a negative impact on later language skills, students who continue to rely on sign to improve their vocabulary comprehension into high school typically exhibit poorer English language outcomes than students whose spoken language comprehension parallels or exceeds their comprehension of speech + sign. Overall, the language results obtained from these teenagers with more than 10 yrs of CI experience reflect substantial improvement over the verbal skills exhibited by adolescents with similar levels of hearing loss before the advent of CIs. These optimistic results were observed in teenagers who were among the first in the United States and Canada to receive a CI. We anticipate that the use of improved technology that is being initiated at even younger ages should lead to age-appropriate language levels in an even larger proportion of children with CIs.

Closing the gap in academic readiness and achievement: the role of early childcare

Background: Socially disadvantaged children with academic difficulties at school entry are at increased risk for poor health and psychosocial outcomes. Our objective is to test the possibility that participation in childcare – at the population level – could attenuate the gap in academic readiness and achievement between children with and without a social disadvantage (indexed by low levels of maternal education).Methods: A cohort of infants born in the Canadian province of Quebec in 1997/1998 was selected through birth registries and followed annually until 7 years of age (n = 1,863). Children receiving formal childcare (i.e., center‐based or non‐relative out‐of‐home) were distinguished from those receiving informal childcare (i.e., relative or nanny). Measures from 4 standardized tests that assessed cognitive school readiness (Lollipop Test for School Readiness), receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Revised), mathematics (Number Knowledge Test), and reading performance (Kaufman Assessment Battery for children) were administered at 6 and 7 years.Results: Children of mothers with low levels of education showed a consistent pattern of lower scores on academic readiness and achievement tests at 6 and 7 years than those of highly educated mothers, unless they received formal childcare. Specifically, among children of mothers with low levels of education, those who received formal childcare obtained higher school readiness (d = 0.87), receptive vocabulary (d = 0.36), reading(d = 0.48) and math achievement scores (d = 0.38; although not significant at 5%) in comparison with those who were cared for by their parents. Childcare participation was not associated with cognitive outcomes among children of mothers with higher levels of education.Conclusions: Public investments in early childcare are increasing in many countries with the intention of reducing cognitive inequalities between disadvantaged and advantaged children. Our findings provide further evidence suggesting that formal childcare could represent a preventative means of attenuating effects of disadvantage on children’s early academic trajectory.

Multiple aspects of preschool children’s social cognition: relations with peer acceptance and peer interaction style

Three aspects of young children’s social cognition – accurate encoding of social cues, hostile attributions and response access/generation – were assessed among 128 children (64 girls) attending three‐, four‐, and five‐year‐old classrooms (ages ranged from 36 to 73 months). Hostile attributions and the quality of strategy generation were both significantly associated with teacher‐rated peer competence and aggressiveness, even when children’s receptive vocabulary scores and age were controlled. For girls, hostile attributions, but not cue encoding or response generation, was associated with teacher ratings of competence and aggression. For boys, hostile attributions were associated with teacher ratings of competence, and response generation was associated with teacher ratings of competence and aggression. Regression analysis, controlling for sex, age and receptive vocabulary, revealed that both hostile attributions and the quality of social strategy generation, but not encoding of cues, made unique, significant contributions to the prediction of teacher ratings of competence and aggression.

Atypical Propositional Language Organization in Prenatal and Early-Acquired Temporal Lobe Lesions

This study investigated differences in propositional language organization in children with developmental and acquired brain lesions. We evaluated 30 right-handed subjects with intractable epilepsy due to either focal cortical dysplasia or hippocampal sclerosis with neuropsychological testing and functional MRI prior to epilepsy surgery. Atypical activations were seen in both prenatal and early postnatal lesions, but the contribution of specific histopathological substrate was minimal. Atypical organization of both temporal and frontal language areas also correlated inversely with receptive vocabulary scores. The data demonstrated a greater propensity toward atypical activation patterns for receptive than expressive networks, particularly when lesions were located in the dominant temporal lobe. Atypical language organization was not correlated with seizure-related factors such as age at onset or duration of epilepsy. The patterns of atypical language activation support prior studies implicating proximity of pathology to eloquent cortex in the dominant hemisphere as the primary determinant of functional reorganization.

Individual differences in auditory sentence comprehension in children: An exploratory event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation

The purpose of this study was to explore changes in activation of the cortical network that serves auditory sentence comprehension in children in response to increasing demands of complex sentences. A further goal is to study how individual differences in children’s receptive language abilities are associated with such changes in cortical responses. Fourteen children, 10–16 years old, participated in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment using a cross modal sentence-picture verification paradigm. We manipulated sentence difficulty and length in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Task-related activation covered large regions of the left and right superior temporal cortex, inferior parietal lobe, precuneous, cingulate, middle frontal gyrus and precentral gyrus. Sentence difficulty, independent of length, led to increased activation in the left temporal-parietal junction and right superior temporal gyrus. Changes in activation in frontal regions positively correlated with age-standardized receptive vocabulary scores and negatively correlated with reaction time on a receptive grammar test outside the scanner. Thus, individual differences in language skills were associated with changes in the network in response to changing task demands. These preliminary findings in a small sample of typically developing children suggest that the investigation of individual differences may prove useful in elucidating the underlying neural mechanisms of language disorders in children.

Longitudinal Study of Speech Perception, Speech, and Language for Children with Hearing Loss in an Auditory-Verbal Therapy Program

This study examined the speech perception, speech, and language developmental progress of 25 children with hearing loss (mean Pure-Tone Average [PTA] 79.37 dB HL) in an auditory-verbal therapy program. Children were tested initially and then 21 months later on a battery of assessments. The speech and language results over time were compared with those for a control group of children with typical hearing who were matched for initial language age, receptive vocabulary, gender, and socioeconomic level. Speech perception scores for the children with hearing loss showed significant improvement (p 0.05). At the 21-month test point, 84% of the children with hearing loss scored within the typical range for total language age, compared to 58.6% at the initial assessment. Receptive vocabulary scores were an exception, with the children with typical hearing showing significantly more gain than the children with hearing loss (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, the group with hearing loss scored within the typical range for receptive vocabulary. Overall, the results show that the children with hearing loss had improved speech perception skills over time and that their rate of progress for speech and language skills was similar to that of children with typical hearing.

Reading and spelling in children with severe speech and physical impairments: a comparative study

Effective literacy skills are crucial in supporting communication for children with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI). Reading and spelling difficulties are reported to be over-represented in this group, even where language and cognitive skills are age appropriate. To compare the performance of children with SSPI on a range of language, reading and spelling tasks with that of their typically developing peers matched for receptive vocabulary and mental age. A wide range of tasks was developed as part of a larger study exploring phonological awareness, reading and spelling skills. All tasks were accessible to children with severe physical impairments. Two groups of primary school-aged children were recruited, children with SSPI of average intelligence, and naturally speaking peers, matched for receptive vocabulary. Children were assessed individually on language, non-verbal cognition, phonological awareness, reading and spelling tasks. Sixteen children with SSPI were recruited. Their performance was compared with that of 15 naturally speaking peers, matched for receptive vocabulary scores. The children with SSPI achieved significantly lower scores on reading and spelling measures relative to their naturally speaking peers. However, at least one participant with SSPI scored at ceiling on each task, indicating that SSPI do not preclude the development of reading and spelling, at least in the early stages of literacy development. This study indicates that some children with severe speech impairments can develop phonological awareness, reading and spelling skills. However, the data suggest that phonological awareness may not be as good a predictor of reading and spelling abilities in this group of children as in typically developing children. Further research is needed to track development of reading and spelling, as well as the instructional support needed to scaffold more effective skills in these areas.

Language and academic abilities in children with selective mutism

AbstractWe examined receptive language and academic abilities in children with selective mutism (SM; n = 30; M age = 8.8 years), anxiety disorders (n = 46; M age = 9.3 years), and community controls (n = 27; M age = 7.8 years). Receptive language and academic abilities were assessed using standardized tests completed in the laboratory. We found a significant group by sex interaction for receptive vocabulary scores such that, within females, the SM and mixed anxiety groups had significantly lower receptive vocabulary scores than community controls. We also found that children with SM and children with anxiety disorders had significantly lower mathematics scores than community controls. Despite these differences in mathematics and receptive vocabulary performance, children with SM and children with anxiety disorders still performed at age‐level norms, while more children in the community control group performed above age‐level norms. Findings suggest that despite their speaking inhibition in the school setting, children with SM are still able to attain the receptive vocabulary and academic abilities that are expected at their age levels. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Investigating the psycholinguistic correlates of speechreading in preschool age children

Previous research has found that newborn infants can match phonetic information in the lips and voice from as young as ten weeks old. There is evidence that access to visual speech is necessary for normal speech development. Although we have an understanding of this early sensitivity, very little research has investigated older children's ability to speechread whole words. The aim of this study was to identify aspects of preschool children's linguistic knowledge and processing ability that may contribute to speechreading ability. We predicted a significant correlation between receptive vocabulary and speechreading, as well as phonological working memory to be a predictor of speechreading performance. Seventy-six children (n = 76) aged between 2;10 and 4;11 years participated. Children were given three pictures and were asked to point to the picture that they thought that the experimenter had silently mouthed (ten trials). Receptive vocabulary and phonological working memory were also assessed. The results were analysed using Pearson correlations and multiple regressions. The results demonstrated that the children could speechread at a rate greater than chance. Pearson correlations revealed significant, positive correlations between receptive vocabulary and speechreading score, phonological error rate and age. Further correlations revealed significant, positive relationships between The Children's Test of Non-Word Repetition (CNRep) and speechreading score, phonological error rate and age. Multiple regression analyses showed that receptive vocabulary best predicts speechreading ability over and above phonological working memory. The results suggest that preschool children are capable of speechreading, and that this ability is related to vocabulary size. This suggests that children aged between 2;10 and 4;11 are sensitive to visual information in the form of audio-visual mappings. We suggest that current and future therapies are correct to include visual feedback as a therapeutic tool; however, future research needs to be conducted in order to elucidate further the role of speechreading in development.

Receptive Vocabulary Development in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants: Achievement in an Intensive Auditory-Oral Educational Setting

Deaf children with cochlear implants are at a disadvantage in learning vocabulary when compared with hearing peers. Past research has reported that children with implants have lower receptive vocabulary scores and less growth over time than hearing children. Research findings are mixed as to the effects of age at implantation on vocabulary skills and development. One goal of the current study is to determine how children with cochlear implants educated in an auditory-oral environment compared with their hearing peers on a receptive vocabulary measure in overall achievement and growth rates. This study will also investigate the effects of age at implant on vocabulary abilities and growth rates. We expect that the children with implants will have smaller vocabularies than their hearing peers but will achieve similar rates of growth as their implant experience increases. We also expect that children who receive their implants at young ages will have better overall vocabulary and higher growth rates than older-at-implant children. Repeated assessments using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test were given to 65 deaf children with cochlear implants who used oral communication, who were implanted under the age of 5 yr, and who attended an intensive auditory-oral education program. Multilevel modeling was used to describe overall abilities and rates of receptive vocabulary growth over time. On average, the deaf children with cochlear implants had lower vocabulary scores than their hearing peers. However, the deaf children demonstrated substantial vocabulary growth, making more than 1 yr's worth of progress in a year. This finding contrasts with those of previous studies of children with implants, which found lower growth rates. A negative quadratic trend indicated that growth decelerated with time. Age at implantation significantly affected linear and quadratic growth. Younger-at-implant children had steeper growth rates but more tapering off with time than children implanted later in life. Growth curves indicate that children who are implanted by the age of 2 yr can achieve receptive vocabulary skills within the average range for hearing children.

Vocabulary breadth in French L2 learners

Vocabulary is one of the building blocks of language and is a necessary component of learners' development. This paper aims to describe the development of the L2 lexicon from the first year of learning French as a foreign language at school to the last year of undergraduate studies at university by setting out what learners know and how this relates to academic results. This study focuses on vocabulary breadth. The definition for vocabulary breadth we use in this study relates to vocabulary size (i.e. the number of words learners know). Data were collected as part of the French Language Learner Oral Corpora (FLLOC) project using X_Lex – a yes/no vocabulary test in which students are asked to tick the words they know out of 100 words and 20 non-words. Analyses revealed that learners' lexicon size increased throughout the study period. Learning is linked to word frequency for all learners at all stages. However, no significant correlation was found between A-level exam grades (taken at the end of the final year of schooling, prior to university entry, at approximately age 18) and receptive vocabulary scores. The reasons for this are explored. The analysis also included comparisons with other recently collected data sets of the same nature (in other parts of the UK) suggesting possible regional differences. The paper contributes to the rapidly expanding body of literature on vocabulary acquisition.

Maternal and child predictors of low-income children's educational attainment

Much research has investigated maternal and child predictors of educational attainment. This longitudinal study builds on past research by examining how everyday mother–child conversations about decision-making in early adolescence predict adolescents' decisions to drop out of high school, terminate their education with a high school degree, or complete high school and enroll in tertiary education. Forty-four mothers' use of emotionally enabling speech and willingness to allow their 7th grade children (25 girls; 19 boys) to select their friends predicted children's later decisions about educational attainment in high school. In contrast, children's reported intrinsic motivation, receptive vocabulary scores, and mothers' education did not predict children's educational attainment. These findings underscore the importance of going beyond status variables such as maternal education, to incorporate measures of parent–child interaction in predicting adolescents' educational trajectories.

Links between parenting styles, parent–child academic interaction, parent–school interaction, and early academic skills and social behaviors in young children of English-speaking Caribbean immigrants

This study examined the influence of parenting styles, parent–child academic involvement at home, and parent–school contact on academic skills and social behaviors among kindergarten-age children of Caribbean immigrants. Seventy immigrant mothers and fathers participated in the study. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that fathers’ authoritarian parenting style was negatively associated with and father–school contact was positively associated with receptive skills, vocabulary, and composite scores over and above that of mothers’ contributions in these areas. Fathers’ authoritative parenting style and father–child academic interaction at home were positively related to children's social behaviors. Mothers’ authoritarian parenting style was negatively and mother–school contact was positively associated with children's social behaviors. Analyses indicated that fathers’ parenting carried the weight of influence over mothers’ parenting for facilitating both child academic skills and social behaviors. The roles of parenting styles, parent–academic activities, and parent–school contacts in early schooling are discussed.

Synthesized speech intelligibility among native speakers and non-native speakers of English

Using synthesized and digitized speech in electronic communication devices may greatly benefit individuals who cannot produce intelligible speech. However, multiple investigations have demonstrated that synthesized speech is not always sufficiently intelligible for its listeners. Listening to synthesized speech may be particularly problematic for listeners for whom English is a second language. We compared native and non-native English-speaking adults' listening accuracy for English sentences in natural voice and synthesized voice conditions. Results indicated a disproportionate disadvantage for the non-native English-speaking group when listening to synthesized speech compared to their native English-speaking age peers. There was, however, significant variability in performance within the non-native English group, and this was strongly related to independent measures of English language skill. Specifically, a large portion of the variance in performance on the synthesized speech task was predicted by participants' receptive vocabulary scores.

Lexical Priming in Picture Naming of Young Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the influence of lexical/semantic priming on the speech reaction time of young children who do and do not stutter during a picture-naming task. Participants were 23 children who stutter, age-matched (+/-4 months) to 23 children who do not stutter, ranging in age from 3;0 (years;months) to 5;11. Procedures involved a computer-assisted picture-naming task, during which each participant was presented with the same set of 28 pictures in each of 3 different conditions: (a) no-prime condition, in which no auditory stimulus was presented before picture display; (b) related-prime condition, in which a word, semantically related to the target picture, was presented auditorily 700 ms before picture display; and (c) unrelated-prime condition, in which a semantically unrelated word was presented auditorily 700 ms before picture display. Results indicated that when compared with a no-prime condition, presentation of semantically related words before the picture-naming response led to shorter or faster speech reaction times for children who do not stutter, but for children who stutter, it led to longer or slower speech reaction times. Moreover, children who do not stutter and who had higher receptive vocabulary scores exhibited faster speech reaction times and a greater semantic priming effect, whereas no such relationships were found for children who stutter. Findings were taken to suggest that children who stutter may exhibit subtle difficulties with lexical encoding and that this difficulty with speech-language planning may be one variable that contributes to childhood stuttering.

Effects of nurse home visiting on maternal life course and child development: age 6 follow‐up results of a randomized trial

. Olds DL, Kitzman H, Cole R, Robinson J, Sidora K, Luckey DW, Henderson CR, Hanks C, Bondy J &amp; Holmberg J. ( 2004 ) , 114 , 1550 – 1559 . Objective To test, with an urban, primarily black sample, the effects of prenatal and infancy home visits by nurses on mothers’ fertility and economic self‐sufficiency and the academic and behavioural adjustment of their children as the children finished kindergarten, near their sixth birthday.Methods We conducted a randomized, controlled trial of a programme of prenatal and infancy home visiting in a public system of obstetric and paediatric care in Memphis, TN. A total of 743 primarily black women at &lt; 29 weeks of gestation, with no previous live births and with not less than two sociodemographic risk characteristics (unmarried, &lt;12 years of education, or unemployed), were randomly assigned to receive nurse home visits or comparison services. Outcomes consisted of women's number and timing of subsequent pregnancies, months of employment, use of welfare, food stamps, and Medicaid, educational achievement, behavioural problems attributable to the use of substances, rates of marriage and cohabitation, and duration of relationships with partners and their children’s behaviour problems, responses to story stems, intellectual functioning, receptive language and academic achievement.Results In contrast to counterparts assigned to the comparison group, women visited by nurses had fewer subsequent pregnancies and births (1.16 vs. 1.38 pregnancies and 1.08 vs. 1.28 births, respectively), longer intervals between births of the first and second children (34.28 vs. 30.23 months), longer relationships with current partners (54.36 vs. 45.00 months), and, since the previous follow‐up evaluation at 4.5 years, fewer months of using welfare (7.21 vs. 8.96 months) and food stamps (9.67 vs. 11.50 months). Nurse‐visited children were more likely to have been enrolled in formal out‐of‐home care between 2 and 4.5 years of age (82.0% vs. 74.9%). Children visited by nurses demonstrated higher intellectual functioning and receptive vocabulary scores (scores of 92.34 vs. 90.24 and 84.32 vs. 82.13 respectively) and fewer behaviour problems in the borderline or clinical range (1.8% vs. 5.4%). Nurse‐visited children born to mothers with low levels of psychologic resources had higher arithmetic achievement test scores (score of 88.61 vs. 85.42) and expressed less aggression (score of 98.58 vs. 101.10) and incoherence (score of 20.90 vs. 29.84) in response to story stems. There were no statistically significant programme effects on women's education, duration of employment, rates of marriage, being in a partnered relationship, living with the father of the child, or domestic violence, current partner's educational level, or behavioural problems attributable to the use of alcohol or drugs.Conclusion This programme of prenatal and infancy home visiting by nurses continued to improve the lives of women and children at child age 6 years, 4 years after the programme ended.

Effects of Nurse Home-Visiting on Maternal Life Course and Child Development: Age 6 Follow-Up Results of a Randomized Trial

To test, with an urban, primarily black sample, the effects of prenatal and infancy home visits by nurses on mothers' fertility and economic self-sufficiency and the academic and behavioral adjustment of their children as the children finished kindergarten, near their sixth birthday. We conducted a randomized, controlled trial of a program of prenatal and infancy home-visiting in a public system of obstetric and pediatric care in Memphis, Tennessee. A total of 743 primarily black women at <29 weeks of gestation, with no previous live births and with > or =2 sociodemographic risk characteristics (unmarried, <12 years of education, or unemployed), were randomly assigned to receive nurse home visits or comparison services. Outcomes consisted of women's number and timing of subsequent pregnancies, months of employment, use of welfare, food stamps, and Medicaid, educational achievement, behavioral problems attributable to the use of substances, rates of marriage and cohabitation, and duration of relationships with partners and their children's behavior problems, responses to story stems, intellectual functioning, receptive language, and academic achievement. In contrast to counterparts assigned to the comparison group, women visited by nurses had fewer subsequent pregnancies and births (1.16 vs 1.38 pregnancies and 1.08 vs 1.28 births, respectively), longer intervals between births of the first and second children (34.28 vs 30.23 months), longer relationships with current partners (54.36 vs 45.00 months), and, since the previous follow-up evaluation at 4.5 years, fewer months of using welfare (7.21 vs 8.96 months) and food stamps (9.67 vs 11.50 months). Nurse-visited children were more likely to have been enrolled in formal out-of-home care between 2 and 4.5 years of age (82.0% vs 74.9%). Children visited by nurses demonstrated higher intellectual functioning and receptive vocabulary scores (scores of 92.34 vs 90.24 and 84.32 vs 82.13, respectively) and fewer behavior problems in the borderline or clinical range (1.8% vs 5.4%). Nurse-visited children born to mothers with low levels of psychologic resources had higher arithmetic achievement test scores (score of 88.61 vs 85.42) and expressed less aggression (score of 98.58 vs 101.10) and incoherence (score of 20.90 vs 29.84) in response to story stems. There were no statistically significant program effects on women's education, duration of employment, rates of marriage, being in a partnered relationship, living with the father of the child, or domestic violence, current partner's educational level, or behavioral problems attributable to the use of alcohol or drugs. This program of prenatal and infancy home-visiting by nurses continued to improve the lives of women and children at child age 6 years, 4 years after the program ended.

Contributions of Receptive Vocabulary and Maternal Style

The contributions of three variables—children's receptive vocabulary scores, maternal responsiveness, and maternal directiveness—to the prediction of Verbal IQ and reading over a 5½-year period were investigated. The study sample consisted of 543 low-birthweight children who were participants in the larger Infant Health and Development Program. Three separate multiple regression analyses found that children's receptive vocabulary scores at 36 months of age accounted for the major portion of the variation in the outcomes. Maternal responsiveness added significantly to the variation in each of the three models. The results suggest that the responsiveness of the mother is an important variable to consider when an intervention target is enhancing the verbal ability of a child.

Language abilities of children who stutter: A preliminary study

The purpose of this study was to examine differences between children who do (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) on standardized tests of receptive/expressive language and receptive vocabulary. Subjects were 16 boys and 4 girls who stutter (mean age = 46.80 months) and 16 boys and 4 girls who do not stutter (mean age = 47.55 months). Each child was audio recorded during a loosely structured, 30-minute conversation with an adult. This conversational interaction was subsequently assessed to provide information pertinent to the child's frequency and type of speech disfluency. After completion of the adult-child conversational interaction, each child was administered and responded to standardized tests of syntactic, semantic, and phonological abilities and development. Results indicated that the difference between measures of receptive/expressive language and receptive vocabulary is significantly greater for CWS than CWNS; however, this difference between receptive/expressive language and receptive vocabulary scores was not significantly correlated with the overall stuttering frequency of CWS. Findings were taken to suggest that the semantic development of CWS may lag behind their syntactic development, a possible imbalance among components of the speech-language systems of CWS that may contribute to the difficulties they have establishing normal speech fluency. Research supported by an NIH grant (DC00523) to Vanderbilt University.

Speech, vocabulary, and the education of children using cochlear implants: oral or total communication?

This study examines the relationship between the teaching method, oral or total communication, used at children's schools and children's consonant-production accuracy and vocabulary development over time. Children who participated in the study (N = 147) demonstrated profound sensorineural hearing loss and had used cochlear implants for between 6 months and 10 years. Educational programs that used an oral communication (OC) approach focused on the development of spoken language, whereas educational programs that used a total communication (TC) approach focused on the development of language using both signed and spoken language. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) we compared the consonant-production accuracy, receptive spoken vocabulary, and expressive spoken and/or signed vocabulary skills, over time, of children who were enrolled in schools that used either OC or TC approaches, while controlling for a number of variables. These variables included age at implantation, preoperative aided speech detection thresholds, type of cochlear implant device used, and whether a complete or incomplete active electrode array was implanted. The results of this study indicated that as they used their implants the children demonstrated improved consonant-production accuracy and expressive and receptive vocabulary over time, regardless of whether their school employed a TC or OC teaching method. Furthermore, there appeared to be a complex relationship among children's performance with the cochlear implant, age at implantation, and communication/teaching strategy employed by the school. Controlling for all variables, children in OC programs demonstrated, on average, superior consonant-production accuracy, with significantly greater rates of improvement in consonant-production accuracy scores over time compared to children in TC programs. However, there was no significant difference between OC and TC groups in performance or rate of growth in consonant-production accuracy when children received their implants before the age of 5 years. There was no significant difference between the OC and TC groups in receptive spoken vocabulary scores or in rate of improvement over time. However, children in the TC group achieved significantly higher receptive spoken vocabulary scores than children in the OC group if they received their implant before the age of 5 years. The TC group demonstrated superior scores and rates of growth on the expressive vocabulary measure (spoken and/or signed) when compared to the OC group if they received their implants during their preschool or early elementary school years. There was no significant difference if the children received their implants during middle elementary school. Regardless of whether children were in the OC or TC group, children who received their implants during preschool demonstrated stronger performance, on average, on all measures over time than children who received their implants during their elementary school years. The results of this study suggest that children may benefit from using cochlear implants regardless of the communication strategy/teaching approach employed by their school program and that other considerations, such as the age at which children receive implants, are more important. Implications and future research needs are discussed.