Language Development and Mild-to-Moderate Hearing Loss: Does Language Normalize With Age?

• Published in: Journal of speech, language, and hearing research Vol. 50; no. 5; pp. 1300 - 1313
• Main Authors: Delage, Helene, Tuller, Laurice
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States ASHA 01.10.2007; American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA); American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Aging - psychology; Auditory Evaluation; Child; Children & youth; Demographic aspects; Developmental Stages; Error Patterns; Female; French; Grammar; Hearing (Physiology); Hearing loss; Hearing Loss - complications; Hearing Loss - physiopathology; Humans; Influence; Language Acquisition; Language Development; Language Development Disorders - etiology; Language Development Disorders - psychology; Language disorders; Language Impairments; Language Skills; Language Tests; Linguistic Performance; Linguistics; Male; Medical screening; Native Speakers; Oral Language; Phonology; Reading comprehension; Scores; Severity (of Disability); Severity of Illness Index; Studies; Verbal ability; Vocabulary Development; Written Language; France
• ISSN: 1092-4388; 1558-9102
• DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2007/091)

Contact author: Hélène Delage, Université François-Rabelais, Faculté des lettres, Départemente de linguistique, Laboratoire Langage and Handicap (JE 2321), 3 Rue des Tanneurs, 37 041 Tours Cedex1, France. E-mail: helene.delage{at}club-internet.fr . Purpose: The authors' purpose was to explore the nature of the link between hearing loss (HL) and language impairment in adolescents with mild-to-moderate hearing loss (MMHL). Does language performance (generally or in certain areas) normalize at adolescence? Method: The language skills of 19 French-speaking adolescents (ages 11–15) with moderate or mild sensorineural HL were evaluated via a series of tests assessing oral and written language, including an experimental probe, and compared with typically developing adolescents and adolescents with specific language impairment (SLI). Results: Language disorders were found, notably in the areas of phonology and grammar, in more than half the adolescents with MMHL; affected domains and error patterns were identical to those found in adolescents with SLI. Language scores of the adolescents with MMHL were significantly linked with degree of HL, a correlation not generally found in studies of children with MMHL. Conclusion: Normalization of language performance does not generalize at adolescence in the context of MMHL. The fact that an effect of the severity of HL was found only after childhood might be because linguistic development is basically complete at adolescence. Prior to this time, this effect could be obscured by developmental rhythms that vary from child to child. KEY WORDS: mild-to-moderate hearing loss, language, normalization, adolescence CiteULike     Connotea     Del.icio.us     Digg     Facebook     Reddit     Technorati     Twitter     What's this?