title: Lexical and semantic ability in groups of children with cochlear implants, language impairment and autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Lexical-semantic ability was investigated among children aged 6-9 years with cochlear implants (CI) and compared to clinical groups of children with language impairment (LI) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as well as to age-matched children with normal hearing (NH). In addition, the influence of age at implantation on lexical-semantic ability was investigated among children with CI.
  
  
  METHODS
  97 children divided into four groups participated, CI (n=34), LI (n=12), ASD (n=12), and NH (n=39). A battery of tests, including picture naming, receptive vocabulary and knowledge of semantic features, was used for assessment. A semantic response analysis of the erroneous responses on the picture-naming test was also performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The group of children with CI exhibited a naming ability comparable to that of the age-matched children with NH, and they also possessed a relevant semantic knowledge of certain words that they were unable to name correctly. Children with CI had a significantly better understanding of words compared to the children with LI and ASD, but a worse understanding than those with NH. The significant differences between groups remained after controlling for age and non-verbal cognitive ability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The children with CI demonstrated lexical-semantic abilities comparable to age-matched children with NH, while children with LI and ASD had a more atypical lexical-semantic profile and poorer sizes of expressive and receptive vocabularies. Dissimilar causes of neurodevelopmental processes seemingly affected lexical-semantic abilities in different ways in the clinical groups.
authors: Department of Speech and Language Pathology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, (CLINTEC), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; HEAD Graduate School, Linnaeus HEAD, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. Electronic address: ulrika.lofkvist@ki.se.
authors: Ulrika
authors: U
authors: Löfkvist
authors: Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors: Ove
authors: O
authors: Almkvist
authors: HEAD Graduate School, Linnaeus HEAD, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden; The Swedish Institute for Disability Research, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors: Björn
authors: B
authors: Lyxell
authors: Department of Speech and Language Pathology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, (CLINTEC), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors: Ing-Mari
authors: IM
authors: Tallberg
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D012660:Semantics; D013548:Sweden; D014825:Vocabulary
keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Children; Cochlear implants; Language impairment; Lexical and semantic ability; Picture naming