title: Bilingual skills of deaf/hard of hearing children from Spain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study described the first language (L1) and second language (L2) skills of a group of Spanish deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) children who were bilingual.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants included parents of 51 DHH children from Spain. Parents completed an electronic survey that included questions on background, details on child's hearing loss, and bilingual status and L2 exposure. Parents also completed the Student Oral Language Observation Matrix, a rating scale that describes language skills.
  
  
  RESULTS
  DHH bilingual children demonstrated L1 skills that were stronger than their monolingual DHH peers. Bilingual children demonstrated a wide range of L2 proficiency, and most were exposed to an L2 through parents and/or schooling. The majority of parents reported that their children demonstrated L2 skills that were either better than or at the level they had expected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results correspond with earlier studies that indicate the DHH children are capable of becoming bilingual. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guiberson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D003463:Cues; D003625:Data Collection; D003638:Deafness; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D012813:Sign Language; D013030:Spain; D013068:Speech Production Measurement
keywords: Bilingualism; Deaf/hard of hearing children; Language acquisition