title: Early hearing loss and language abilities in children with Down syndrome.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although many children with Down syndrome experience hearing loss, there has been little research to investigate its impact on speech and language development. Studies that have investigated the association give inconsistent results. These have often been based on samples where children with the most severe hearing impairments have been excluded and so results do not generalize to the wider population with Down syndrome. Also, measuring children's hearing at the time of a language assessment does not take into account the fluctuating nature of hearing loss in children with Down syndrome or possible effects of losses in their early years.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the impact of early hearing loss on language outcomes for children with Down syndrome.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective audiology clinic records and parent report for 41 children were used to categorize them as either having had hearing difficulties from 2 to 4 years or more normal hearing. Differences between the groups on measures of language expression and comprehension, receptive vocabulary, a narrative task and speech accuracy were investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After accounting for the contributions of chronological age and nonverbal mental age to children's scores, there were significant differences between the groups on all measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Early hearing loss has a significant impact on the speech and language development of children with Down syndrome. Results suggest that speech and language therapy should be provided when children are found to have ongoing hearing difficulties and that joint audiology and speech and language therapy clinics could be considered for preschool children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Glynis
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Laws
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D032882:Comprehension; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014825:Vocabulary
keywords: Down syndrome; hearing; language; speech; vocabulary