Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 8:4 2003
© 2003 Oxford University Press
Empirical Article |
Hearing Status, Language Modality, and Young Children's Communicative and Linguistic Behavior
Central Institute for the Deaf
This study examined early pragmatic skill development in a group of 38 children with severe or profound hearing loss between 1 and 4 years of age who were enrolled in a simultaneous communication (SC) approach to language learning. Both their use of intentionally communicative acts and their use of language were studied in an analysis of 30-min play sessions between a child and the primary caregiver. Results were compared with previously published data from two age-matched groups: 38 deaf children who were enrolled in oral communication (OC) programs and 84 normally hearing (NH) children. All groups showed a significant improvement with age in the communicative behaviors measured; therefore, the overall trend was toward growth—in all age groups—even when the rates of growth differed. By age 3 years, a pattern of communicative function use had emerged in all three groups. Patterns exhibited by deaf children in the SC and OC groups were similar to each other and to younger NH children but dissimilar to NH age mates. Although the use of signed input by normally hearing parents and teachers did not serve to ameliorate the profound effects of hearing loss on communication development in SC children, it did provide some early advantages. The children in SC groups did not exhibit an advantage over children in OC groups in their overall frequency of communication or the breadth of their vocabulary but they began using words earlier and used mature communicative functions significantly more often. Although children in the OC groups did not exhibit a significant advantage in the overall amount of speech used, they showed an advantage in the breadth of their spoken vocabulary in a conversational setting. Implications for early intervention programming are discussed.
The authors are at the Center for Applied Research in Childhood Deafness at Central Institute for the Deaf. This study was supported by Grant No. DC01259 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and from the Oberkotter Foundation to Central Institute for the Deaf. The authors wish to thank the following people for their assistance: Kim Endraske, Brent Spehar, Allison Sedey, and Anne Heintzelman. We would also like to acknowledge with gratitude the following programs for their enthusiastic cooperation: Milwaukee Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin, University of Northern Colorado Laboratory School, The Bill Wilkerson Center of Vanderbilt University, Louisville Oral School, and the University of Iowa Hospitals. Correspondence should be sent to Johanna Nicholas, Center for Applied Studies of Childhood Deafness and Adult Aural Rehabilitation, Central Institute for the Deaf, 4560 Clayton Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110 (e-mail: jnicholas{at}cid.wustl.edu)
Received July 9, 2001; revised February 14, 2003; accepted February 17, 2003
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