title: Language skills and phonological awareness in children with cochlear implants and normal hearing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Early auditory experience plays a major role in language acquisition. Linguistic and metalinguistic abilities of children aged 5-5.5 years with cochlear implants (CIs) were compared to age-matched children with normal hearing (NH) to investigate the effect of hearing on development of these two skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighteen children with NH and 18 children with CIs took part in the study. The Test of Language Development-Primary, third edition, was used to assess language and metalinguistic skills by assessment of phonological awareness (PA). Language skills and PA were then compared between groups. Hierarchical linear regression was conducted to determine whether the language skills explained the unique variance in PA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were significant differences between children with NH and those with CIs for language skills and PA (p≤0.001). All language skills (semantics, syntax, listening, spoken language, organizing, and speaking) were uniquely predictive of PA outcome in the CI children. Linear combinations of listening and semantics and listening, semantics, and syntax correlated significantly with PA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results show that children with CIs may have trouble with language skills and PA. Listening, semantics, and syntax, among other skills, are significant indicators of the variance in PA for children with CIs.
authors.affiliation: School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: Soleymaniz@sina.tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Soleymani
authors.affiliation: Iranian Research Center on Healthy Aging, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran.
authors.forename: Najmeh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mahmoodabadi
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mina Mohammadi
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Nouri
mesh_terms: D001307:Auditory Perception; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D012660:Semantics
keywords: Cochlear implant; Farsi-speaking children; Language skills; Phonological awareness