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Inferences and metaphoric comprehension in unilaterally implanted children with adequate formal oral language performance.
- Source :
-
International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology [Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol] 2014 May; Vol. 78 (5), pp. 821-7. Date of Electronic Publication: 2014 Feb 26. - Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- Objectives: To assess skills in inferences during conversations and in metaphors comprehension of unilaterally cochlear implanted children with adequate abilities at the formal language tests, comparing them with well-matched hearing peers; to verify the influence of age of implantation on overall skills.<br />Methods: The study was designed as a matched case-control study. 31 deaf children, unilateral cochlear implant users, with normal linguistic competence at formal language tests were compared with 31 normal hearing matched peers. Inferences and metaphor comprehension skills were assessed through the Implicit Meaning Comprehension, Situations and Metaphors subtests of the Italian Standardized Battery of "Pragmatic Language Skills MEDEA". Differences between patient and control groups were tested by the Mann-Whitney U test. Correlations between age at implantation and time of implant use with each subtest were investigated by the Spearman rank correlation coefficient.<br />Results: No significant differences between the two groups were found in inferencing skills (p=0.24 and p=0.011 respectively for Situations and Implicit Meaning Comprehension). Regarding figurative language, unilaterally cochlear implanted children performed significantly below their normal hearing peers in Verbal Metaphor comprehension (p=0.001). Performances were related to age at implantation, but not with time of implant use.<br />Conclusions: Unilaterally cochlear implanted children with normal language level showed responses similar to NH children in discourse inferences, but not in figurative language comprehension. Metaphors still remains a challenge for unilateral implant users and above all when they have not any reference, as demonstrated by the significant difference in verbal rather than figurative metaphors comprehension. Older age at implantation was related to worse performance for all items. These aspects, until now less investigated, had to receive more attention to deeply understand specific mechanisms involved and possible effects of different levels of figurative language complexity (presence or absence of contextual input, degree of transparency and syntactic frozenness). New insight is needed to orient programs in early intervention settings in considering and adequately responding to all these complex communicative need of children with hearing loss.<br /> (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Subjects :
- Adolescent
Age Factors
Audiometry methods
Case-Control Studies
Child
Communication
Deafness diagnosis
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Italy
Language Development
Male
Reference Values
Risk Assessment
Severity of Illness Index
Speech Perception
Statistics, Nonparametric
Task Performance and Analysis
Treatment Outcome
Verbal Behavior
Cochlear Implantation methods
Cochlear Implants
Comprehension physiology
Deafness surgery
Metaphor
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1872-8464
- Volume :
- 78
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 24636746
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2014.02.022