Search

Purpose: There is solid evidence that an early age at cochlear implantation, which reduces the period of auditory deprivation, positively impacts early spoken language development. However, there is an urgent need for more research to understand the long-term effects of early implantation on higher linguistic skills, such as metaphor comprehension. In this study, we explored metaphor comprehension in Swedish-speaking adolescents and young adults with cochlear implant (CI), compared to that of typically hearing peers, as well as its relationship with the age at first CI., Method: The participants consisted of 39 individuals who received CI before 30 months of age ( M age = 16.9 years, mean age at implant = 15.7 months) and a group of 27 individuals with typical hearing ( M age = 14.9 years). To assess metaphor comprehension, we developed a multiple-choice task that was administrated verbally. Standardized tests were used to evaluate vocabulary, reading skills, and nonverbal cognitive skills., Results: No significant differences were found in metaphor comprehension or other linguistic or cognitive skills between individuals with CI and the typically hearing peers. Further analysis indicated a moderate negative correlation between metaphor comprehension and age at implantation and other linguistic skills., Conclusions: Early-implanted children develop metaphor comprehension comparable to their typically hearing peers, with earlier age at implantation being associated with better metaphor comprehension in adolescence. However, age at implantation only partially explains the variation in metaphor comprehension abilities. Further research is needed to identify other factors that influence the development of metaphor comprehension in individuals with CI.

Purpose: This study investigated long-term predictors of reading development (phonological decoding, word recognition, and reading comprehension) in 24 children with cochlear implants (CIs)., Method: The predictor variables were age, sex, nonverbal intelligence, working memory, paired associate learning, receptive vocabulary, phonological skills, grammatical knowledge, age at implantation, speech perception, and reported interest in reading. The children's mean age was approximately 7;8 years at the start of the study and they were then measured at three time points. The first and second assessments took place approximately 13 months apart, and the children were approximately 11;8 years of age at the third time point., Results: Decoding ability at age 11 was associated with early measures of nonverbal cognitive ability, visual-verbal paired associate learning, and grammatical knowledge when 0.05 was used as significance level but none of them remained significant after correcting for multiple comparisons. Several predictor variables from earlier measurements were significantly related to reading comprehension at age 11. The predictors that remained significant after Bonferroni correction were receptive vocabulary and grammatical knowledge., Discussion: The findings from this research suggest that early exposure to hearing and language, in particular vocabulary and grammar, is associated with reading outcomes at age 11., (Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Purpose: The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the home language environment and language outcome of Brazilian toddlers who were hard of hearing, (HH) and controls with typical hearing (TH), and investigate the reliability of using the LENA recording system within a Brazilian Portuguese context., Methods: Fourteen families participated in the study (seven children who were HH and seven controls with TH. Each family contributed with one all-day recording. A smaller portion of the recordings of the typically hearing toddlers were manually transcribed by two transcribers. An interrater agreement was conducted, and then the human transcript results were compared against the LENA-generated data for three measures: Adult Words (AW), Child Vocalizations (CV) and Conversational Turns (CT)., Results: Data analyses revealed a moderate to strong interrater agreement for CV and AW. Weak to moderate agreement was found between the LENA estimates and the means of the human counts for CV and AW. Seemingly, LENA overestimated human counts for AW and underestimated numbers of CV. Comparative analysis suggested similarities in the language and listening environment of the two groups (TH vs. HoH). Children's language development was supported by higher numbers of parent-child interactions (CT)., Conclusion: The findings imply that LENA may contribute as an ecologically valid tool in preventive family-centered intervention programs for Brazilian toddlers who are hard of hearing and their families, although further validation studies are needed.

Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection is the most common cause of progressive hearing impairment. In our previous study around 90% of children with a cCMV infection and CI had severely damaged balance functions (Karltorp et al., 2014). Around 20% had vision impairment, 15% were diagnosed with Autism-Spectrum-Disorder, and 20% with ADHD. One clinical observation was that children with cCMV infection had problems with executive functioning (EF), while controls with a genetic cause of deafness (Connexin 26 mutations; Cx26) did not have similar difficulties. A follow-up study was therefore initiated with the main objective to examine EF and pragmatic skills in relation to mental health in children with a cCMV infection and to draw a comparison with matched controls with Cx26 mutations (age, sex, hearing, non-verbal cognitive ability, vocabulary, and socioeconomic status level). Ten children with a cCMV infection and CI (4.8-12:9 years) and seven children with CI (4:8-12:8 years) participated in the study, which had a multidisciplinary approach. Executive functioning was assessed both with formal tests targeting working memory and attention, parent and teacher questionnaires, and a systematic observation by a blinded psychologist during one test situation. Pragmatics and mental health were investigated with parent and teacher reports. In addition, the early language outcome was considered in non-parametric correlation analyses examining the possible relationships between later EF skills, pragmatics, and mental health. Children with cCMV had a statistically significant worse pragmatic outcome and phonological working memory than controls despite their groups having similar non-verbal cognitive ability and vocabulary. However, there were no statistical differences between the groups regarding their EF skills in everyday settings and mental health. There were associations between early language outcomes and later EF skills and pragmatics in the whole sample. Conclusion: Children with a cCMV infection are at risk of developing learning difficulties in school due to difficulties with phonological working memory and pragmatic skills in social interactions., (Copyright © 2020 Löfkvist, Anmyr, Henricson and Karltorp.)