title: The lexical development of children with hearing impairment and associated factors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed at analyzing the association between the lexical development of children with hearing impairment and their psychosocial and socioeconomic characteristics and medical history.
  
  
  METHODS
  An analytic transversal study was conducted in an Auditive Health Attention Service. One hundred and ten children from 6 to 10 years old using hearing aids and presenting hearing loss that ranged from light to deep levels were evaluated. All children were subjected to oral, written language and auditory perception tests. Parents answered a structured questionnaire to collect data from their medical history and socioeconomic status, and questionnaires about the features of the family environment and psychosocial characteristics. Multivariate analysis was performed by logistic regression, being the initial model composed by variables with p<0,20 in the univariate analysis. In the final model, we adopted a significance level of 5%.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final model of the multivariate analysis showed an association between the performance on the vocabulary test and the results of phonemic discrimination test (OR=0.81; 95%CI 0.73-0.89).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results show the importance of stimulating the auditory processing, particularly the phonemic discrimination skill, throughout the rehabilitation process of children with hearing impairment. This stimulation can enhance lexical development and minimize the metalanguage and learning difficulties often observed in these children.
authors.affiliation: School of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Leticia Macedo
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Penna
authors.affiliation: School of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Stela Maris Aguiar
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lemos
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cláudia Regina Lindgren
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Alves
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006311:Hearing Disorders; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013067:Speech Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires