Language development in hearing-impaired children. Establishment of a reference material for a 'Language test for hearing-impaired children', LATHIC.
OBJECTIVE
In Sweden, there has previously been no normalised test material for the evaluation of language development in individual hearing-impaired children, and for the assessment of various methods of auditory habilitation. The purpose of the present study was to compose, apply and evaluate a test for language development in hearing-impaired children, and to establish the first set of reference values related to age, sex, type and degree of hearing impairment.


METHODS
A test consisting of nine subtests was assembled and developed for, and subsequently applied to, hearing-impaired children in the age range 4-6 years. The inclusion criteria were a pure tone average of 80 dBHL or less and oral language (Swedish) as the first language. Two hundred and eleven hearing-impaired children and 87 normal hearing control children were tested.


RESULTS
The results show that: (1) children with hearing impairment-also unilateral-have a delayed language development; (2) the delay is greater in children with larger losses and tends to decrease with increasing age; (3) 6-year-olds with hearing loss greater than 60 dB have not reached the level of the control group; (4) no difference between right- or left sided deafness with respect to language development was observed; (5) a reference material, applicable during clinical assessment, was established for the most common types of hearing impairment.


CONCLUSIONS
The test designed gave graded measures of important aspects of language development in hearing-impaired children. The results merit further application of the test material.
Ahlsén Research Institute, Orebro University Hospital, Sweden. erik.borg@orebroll.se
Erik
E
Borg
Arne
A
Risberg
Bob
B
McAllister
Britt Marie
BM
Undemar
Gertrud
G
Edquist
Anna-Clara
AC
Reinholdson
Anna
A
Wiking-Johnsson
Ursula
U
Willstedt-Svensson
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001299:Audiometry; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013067:Speech Perception; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013548:Sweden; D014705:Verbal Behavior