History re-written for children with hearing impairment

Abstract

A new generation of children with hearing impairment (HI) has emerged due to introduction of universal neonatal hearing screening, medical-surgical/technical and educational advances in the field of paediatric audiology.

Aim: The primary aim of the study was to investigate long-term development of language fundamentals of children with HI at school level and analyse associations to several background variables.

Method and material: The project design is prospective, longitudinal and comparative and was conducted over a three-year period with annual testing of core language, expressive language, working memory and pragmatics. Language scores were compared to type of hearing technology, gender, additional disability, diagnosis of HI, level of social well-being and start age of use of hearing technology. A total of 56 children participated (Children with HI N = 47; Children with normal hearing (NH) N = 9). Intervention included early start and full time use of hearing technology and 3 years of Auditory Verbal (AV) guidance at school level.

Results: Children with HI scored within the norm on all language fundamentals and showed high scores on parental assessments of level of social well-being. No significant association was found between any of the language fundamentals and social well-being. Children with HI and a diagnosed additional disability showed positive progression in terms of language development over the three years.

Conclusion: The new generation of children with HI showed potentials of developing language fundamentals within normal range and thrived in terms of social well-being. Opportunities exist for children to be fully included in their respective local hearing community, if qualitative technical and educational intervention is provided.

Keywords: Audiology; Language outcome; Pediatric; Social well-being.