The vocabulary size of young sensorineurally hearing-impaired children

Abstract

The primary aim of the study was to measure the receptive and expressive vocabulary with respect to clinical parameters and selected socio-demographic variables and to assess whether the size of vocabulary could be predicted by certain variables in a consecutive series of children identified as having bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (,,Gottinger Hor-Sprachregister). Method: All children aged between 2;6 to 6;3 years diagnosed in the Department of Phoniatrics/Pedaudiology of the University Gottingen as having a permanent bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment (,,Gottinger Hor-Sprachregister") in a defined period (july 1995-september 2000) were examinded with standardized receptive and expressive vocabulary tests as well as a nonverbal intelligence test (on average 5.5 months after diagnosis and 2.9 months after fitting with hearing aids). Sample: 37 children (20 boys, 17 girls). Mean age at diagnosis: 48.5 (SD 15.9; min. 18, max .75) months, mean age at hearing aid fitting: 51 months (SD 15.2). Multiple handicapped children, children with additional conductive hearing impairment and those with postnatal losses were excluded. The sample as a whole demonstrated lexical deficits of varying severity that were greater in the expressive than in the receptive vocabulary, depending on the clinical parameter. Children with congenital hearing impairment,with severe-to-profound hearing impairment (>70 dB) and bilingual children demonstrated on average the smallest receptive and expressive vocabulary. An early fitting with hearing aids did not correspond with a better lexical development when a severe-to-profound hearing impairment existed. Severity of a hearing impairment and nonverbal intelligence significantly predicted the average size of the receptive vocabulary. A moderate hearing impairment, high nonverbal intelligence, and gender (female) emerged as the strongest significant predictors of the expressive vocabulary. The vocabulary test result of a bilateral sensorineurally hearing-impaired child may be an indicator for early cognitive training.