title: Narrative competence among hearing-impaired and normal-hearing children: analytical cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  oral narrative is a means of language development assessment. However, standardized data for deaf patients are scarce. The aim here was to compare the use of narrative competence between hearing-impaired and normal-hearing children.
  
  
  METHODS
  analytical cross-sectional study at the Department of Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences, Universidade Federal de São Paulo.
  
  
  METHODS
  twenty-one moderately to profoundly bilaterally hearing-impaired children (cases) and 21 normal-hearing children without language abnormalities (controls), matched according to sex, age, schooling level and school type, were studied. A board showing pictures in a temporally logical sequence was presented to each child, to elicit a narrative, and the child's performance relating to narrative structure and cohesion was measured. The frequencies of variables, their associations (Mann-Whitney test) and their 95% confidence intervals was analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the deaf subjects showed poorer performance regarding narrative structure, use of connectives, cohesion measurements and general punctuation (P < 0.05). There were no differences in the number of propositions elaborated or in referent specification between the two groups. The deaf children produced a higher proportion of orientation-related propositions (P = 0.001) and lower proportions of propositions relating to complicating actions (P = 0.015) and character reactions (P = 0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  hearing-impaired children have abnormalities in different aspects of language, involving form, content and use, in relation to their normal-hearing peers. Narrative competence was also associated with the children's ages and the school type.
authors.affiliation: Hospital São Paulo, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alexandra Dezani
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Bárbara Niegia Garcia de
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Goulart
authors.forename: Brasilia Maria
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Chiari
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D033262:Narration; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D012574:Schools / Q000145:classification