Reading Comprehension of Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants

A cochlear implant (CI) is a hearing device introduced in the 1980s for profoundly deaf subjects who gained little or no benefit from powerful hearing aids. This device comprises an electrode array inserted in the cochlea, connected to an internal receiver, and an externally worn speech processor. The CI transforms acoustic signals into electrical currents which directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Since the early 1990s, cochlear implantation in children has been developing rapidly. Although it is still difficult to predict how a child will perform with a cochlear implant, the success of cochlear implantation can no longer be denied. In this paper, some recent papers and reports, and the results of the various Nijmegen cochlear implant studies, are reviewed. Issues about selection, examinations, surgery and the outcome are discussed. Overall, our results were comparable with those of other authors. It can be concluded that cochlear implantation is an effective treatment for postlingually deaf as well as prelingually (congenital or acquired) deaf children with profound bilateral sensorineural deafness.

This study investigated peripheral vision (at least 30° eccentric to fixation) development in profoundly deaf children without cochlear implantation, and compared this to age-matched hearing controls as well as to deaf and hearing adult data. Deaf and hearing children between the ages of 5 and 15 years were assessed using a new, specifically paediatric designed method of static perimetry. The deaf group (N = 25) were 14 females and 11 males, mean age 9.92 years (range 5-15 years). The hearing group (N = 64) were 34 females, 30 males, mean age 9.13 years (range 5-15 years). All participants had good visual acuity in both eyes (< 0.200 LogMAR). Accuracy of detection and reaction time to briefly presented LED stimuli of three light intensities, at eccentricities between 30° and 85° were measured while fixation was maintained to a central target. The study found reduced peripheral vision in deaf children between 5 and 10 years of age. Deaf children (aged 5-10 years) showed slower reaction times to all stimuli and reduced ability to detect and accurately report dim stimuli in the far periphery. Deaf children performed equally to hearing children aged 11-12 years. Deaf adolescents aged 13-15 years demonstrated faster reaction times to all peripheral stimuli in comparison to hearing controls. Adolescent results were consistent with deaf and hearing adult performances wherein deaf adults also showed significantly faster reaction times than hearing controls. Peripheral vision performance on this task was found to reach adult-like levels of maturity in deaf and hearing children, both in reaction time and accuracy of detection at the age of 11-12 years.

The purposes of this study were to: 1) develop a scoring system to assess narrative ability in children; 2) evaluate the impact of auditory speech perception with a cochlear implant on narrative ability; and 3) evaluate the importance of narrative ability to reading comprehension in deaf children. Narrative productions prompted from an eight-picture sequence story were elicited from 8 and 9 yr olds; 87 who had at least 4 yr of cochlear implant experience and 28 who had normal hearing. The stories were transcribed and a scoring system for narrative ability was developed based on the use of complete narrative structure, conjunctions linking semantic relations, and referents that served to identify and distinguish characters in the narrative. Narrative ability scores of cochlear implant users were examined in relation to their age, IQ, speech perception, language, and reading test scores. In addition, narrative ability scores for children with normal hearing were compared with two groups of cochlear implant users, those with above average speech perception scores and those with below average speech perception scores. Within the sample of hearing-impaired children, narrative ability scores correlated significantly with speech perception, language syntax, and reading test scores. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to predict reading comprehension scores from four predictor variables (age, IQ, language syntax, and narrative ability). Results reflected the independent contribution of discourse-level language skills, as measured by the narrative ability score, as well as sentence-level language skills in predicting reading test scores. Analysis of stories obtained from 8- and 9-yr-old children with normal hearing revealed the classic pattern that included a high point, a resolution, and one or more evaluative statements. Their stories achieved cohesion from correct use of both conjunctions and referents. Deaf children who received above-average speech perception scores with a cochlear implant (i.e., scored above 48% on the Word Intelligibility by Picture Identification speech perception test) told narratives that were similar in structure and use of referents to those of age mates with normal hearing. Although their use of subordinate conjunctions was not as well developed as normal-hearing children, it was significantly above that of deaf children who received less speech perception benefit after a similar period of implant use. These below-average speech perceivers exhibited significantly poorer use of narrative structure and cohesive devices than either normal-hearing age mates or children who achieved above average speech perception with a cochlear implant. Narrative ability is an important predictor of reading comprehension ability in deaf children above and beyond IQ and syntactic competence. Children who receive a cochlear implant under 5 yr of age and obtain above average speech perception benefit from the device construct narratives that are similar in structure and cohesion to those of their hearing age mates by age 8 to 9.

EditorialCochlear Implants: An Update Donald F. Moores In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I have expressed strong reservations about the practice of implanting very young children. I continue to believe that introducing a foreign object into the head of a child with today's life expectancy of around 80 years is fraught with uncertainty, especially when there is no clear evidence that the procedure is more effective than the present generation of powerful hearing aids. I have also believed that much of the research reported must be taken with a grain of salt to the extent that results have been reported by scientists directly involved with implants themselves, raising the possibility that, either consciously or unconsciously, the results have been influenced by expectations. On the other hand, it is clear that, with miniaturization and improved technology, the procedure will become less intrusive and more effective. This publication marks the third straight issue in which an article on cochlear implants has appeared, testifying to the importance attached to the procedure in our field today. Of course, the interest did not develop overnight. For example, Kluwin and Stewart (2001) reported on the process and outcomes of parental decision making regarding implants and Johnston (2004) identified implants as one possible factor in the apparent decline in the Australian Deaf signing population, estimating that perhaps 45% of young Australian children with severe and profound hearing losses have cochlear implants. Taken together, the three articles printed in 2005 issues of the Annals to date provide some unique insight because of their geographic diversity and their research foci. Reflecting the internationalization of the Annals, Preisler, Tvingstedt, and Ahlstrom (2005) interviewed Swedish deaf children about their experiences using cochlear implants; Burger, Spahn, Richter, Eisele, Lohle, and Bengel (2005), in a German study, reported on parental distress related to their children's cochlear implant fitting; and Ben-Itzhak, Most, and Weisel (2005) studied the knowledge and expectations of Israeli teachers of the deaf, audiologists, and speech therapists regarding cochlear implants. Taken as a whole, information is provided on children, parents, and professionals serving deaf children, thereby addressing the three populations most concerned with implants. The three countries themselves represent very different philosophies concerning educational placement and the role of signs in instruction. They share a widespread and growing incidence of cochlear implants among the young deaf population, a phenomenon that apparently is global in nature. Preisler et al. studied the real consumers of cochlear implants themselves, 11 deaf children, ranging in age from 8.5 to 10.5 years of age, who had from 5 to 7.5 years of experience with implants. Six of the children attended special schools in which Swedish Sign Language was the language of instruction and 5 were enrolled in regular classes with hearing children with spoken Swedish the language of instruction, although there was some access to sign language. Unlike some research reported in other countries to the effect that parents choose cochlear implants for their children in the hope that they would function as hearing children, Swedish parents hoped that their children would become bilingual in spoken Swedish and Swedish Sign Language. This may reflect the Swedish philosophy that parents should utilize all possible means of communication to establish communication with their children. For children in both educational settings, sign was the basis for family communication in the first stages of the study, but later much of home communication was in spoken language. On balance, the children's responses were positive; 10 of the children used their implants regularly and considered them natural parts of their lives. Those in regular classes were able to participate in one-to-one conversations, but reported problems in following teachers and class discussions. The children seemed to have a nuanced view of cochlear implants, with a consensus that there were both advantages and disadvantages. Implants provided at least environmental sounds to the entire sample, but for children in regular classes communication with teachers and classmates in class and during breaks was limited. Preisler et al. report that both parents and children in regular classes are aware that they need sign language, which they do not get, to fully understand what...

This paper reports the results of three tasks comparing the development of the understanding of facial expressions of emotion in deaf and hearing children. Two groups of hearing and deaf children of elementary school age were tested for their ability to match photographs of facial expressions of emotion, and to produce and comprehend emotion labels for the expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise. Accuracy data showed comparable levels of performance for deaf and hearing children of the same age. Happiness and sadness were the most accurately matched expressions and the most accurately produced and comprehended labels. Anger was the least accurately matched expression and the most poorly comprehended emotion label. Disgust was the least accurately labeled expression; however, deaf children were more accurate at labeling this expression, and also at labeling fear, than hearing children. Error data revealed that children confused anger with disgust, and fear with surprise. However, the younger groups of deaf and hearing children also showed a tendency to confuse the negative expressions of anger, disgust, and fear with sadness. The results suggest that, despite possible differences in the early socialisation of emotion, deaf and hearing children share a common understanding of the emotions conveyed by distinctive facial expressions.

Semantic categorization: A comparison between deaf and hearing children

ABSTRACTThis study aims to compare word spelling outcomes for French-speaking deaf children with a cochlear implant (CI) with hearing children who matched for age, level of education and gender. A picture written naming task controlling for word frequency, word length, and phoneme-to-grapheme predictability was designed to analyze spelling productions. A generalized linear mixed model on the percentage of correct spelling revealed an effect of participant’s reading abilities, but no effect of hearing status. Word frequency and word length, but not phoneme-to-grapheme predictability, contributed to explaining the spelling variance. Deaf children with a CI made significantly less phonologically plausible errors and more phonologically unacceptable errors when compared to their hearing peers. Age at implantation and speech perception scores were related to deaf children’s errors. A good word spelling level can be achieved by deaf children with a CI, who nonetheless use less efficiently the phoneme-to-grapheme strategy than do hearing children.

Perspectives on academic and social aspects of children’s school experiences were obtained from deaf and hearing children and their (deaf or hearing) parents. Possible differences between (1) the views of children and their parents and (2) those of hearing children and their parents compared to deaf children and their parents were of particular interest. Overall, parents gave their children higher school friendship ratings than the children gave themselves, and hearing children and their parents were more positive about children’s friendships than were deaf children and their parents. Both children and parents also saw deaf children as less successful in reading than hearing children. However, deaf children having deaf parents, attending a school for the deaf and using sign language at home all were associated with more positive perceptions of social success. Use of cochlear implants was not associated with perceptions of greater academic or social success. These and related findings are discussed in the context of parent and child perspectives on social and academic functioning and particular challenges confronted by deaf children in regular school settings.

The relative contributions of phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge to deaf and hearing children’s reading fluency in Chinese

There is limited research comparing the presentation of autism in deaf and hearing children and young people. These comparisons are important to facilitate accurate diagnosis, as rates of misdiagnosis and delay in diagnosis amongst deaf children and young people are high. The aim of this study was to compare diagnostic assessment profiles of a UK cohort of autistic deaf and hearing children and young people. The Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised—Deaf adaptation was completed with the parents of 106 children and young people (deaf children = 65; hearing children = 41). The majority of items explored showed no significant differences between deaf and hearing children and young people. Differences were found in peer relationships, where autistic deaf participants were less likely to respond to the approaches of other children or play imaginatively with peers. These findings need to be taken into consideration by clinicians in the assessment process.

The focal point of this research is to gauge the relationship between the reading comprehension level, problem-solving skills and academic performance of Grades 6 pupils of all the elementary schools in Carmen West District, Division of Bohol, Philippines. Specifically, this study sought to determine the academic performance of the elementary pupils in terms of four key subjects, namely: English, Science, Mathematics and other subjects such as Filipino, HEKASI, EPP and MAPEH. Further, this study presented also the profile of the pupils’ reading comprehension based on the following levels: Literal, Interpretative, Critical-Analysis and Application and their problem-solving skills’ profile. Pearson Moment Product Correlation Coefficient was employed to determine the correlation between the level of reading comprehension and the two identified variables, namely: academic performance and problem-solving skills of the respondents. To prove the validity and reliability of the obtained Pearson r, it was checked against the Table of Critical Values of the Pearson r at .05 level of significance. On the reading comprehension level and academic performance, results unfolded that there is a significant correlation between reading comprehension and academic performance and this finding implies that the reading comprehension is a contributory factor to improve pupils’ academic performance. Moreover, on the reading comprehension level and problem-solving skills, the result indicates that there is a significant correlation between reading comprehension and problem-solving skills. This study concludes that reading comprehension is a contributory factor to the improvement of pupils’ academic performance and problem-solving performance. The researcher recommends that school administrators look into the possibilities of providing more supplementary materials in the form of books and other reading materials so that pupils can use it for further learning and to organize seminars and workshops, special trainings in order to fully equip the teachers with more knowledge and skills in teaching reading strategies. Teachers may organize functional educational programs, remedial classes and enrichment activities to improve pupils’ comprehension skills through systematic comprehension instruction.

El objetivo del presente trabajo de investigación ha sido evaluar tanto la competencia lingüística como las estrategias de lectura que emplean los estudiantes sordos con y sin implante coclear (IC). En una sociedad como la nuestra, donde el acceso a la información y la comunicación requiere de una buena competencia lectora, el uso de implantes cocleares en niños sordos juega un papel importante, sobre todo, y en mayor medida, cuando el implante ha sido colocado de forma precoz (antes de los 30 meses). El presente trabajo pone de manifiesto que los niveles lectores de los niños sordos implantados precozmente no difieren significativamente de los obtenidos por niños oyentes de su misma edad cronológica. Sin embargo, al analizar las estrategias de lectura empleadas para alcanzar ese nivel lector, se observa cómo los estudiantes sordos (implantados y no implantados) hacen uso de la estrategia de palabras clave, la cual consiste en leer frases procesando únicamente las palabras con contenido semántico propio (sustantivos, verbos y adjetivos) y, a partir de ahí, generar el significado de las mismas sin procesar las palabras funcionales (preposiciones, conjunciones y adverbios). Esta situación muestra las dificultades que los estudiantes sordos tienen con el procesamiento morfosintáctico de la lengua.

This study is one in my research direction that being carried out in the past few years. This focuses on the communication ability of deaf children at some facilities treating deaf children in Hanoi. The study aims to determine the effect of cochlear implantation on hearing and speech of children with hearing impairment (deaf children) so that conclusions and recommendations can be made for the treatment and language learning of deaf children in Hanoi and the whole country. The study was conducted at Sunny AVT Center for Deaf Children in Hanoi in 2021 on the 25 deaf children in the center (Among them are16 boys and 9 girls with Cochlear implants aged from 3-48 months). The study is carried out on 2 points of time: before and after hearing impaired children received Cochlear implants. Before Cochlear implant?s Materials are records and notes of pronunciation ability of children with hearing aids and those materials after Cochlear implant?s are videos of pronunciation ability. Research results show that cochlear implants is much superior than hearing aids. The great effect of the Cochlear implantation on the correct pronunciation of Vietnamese syllable components of the children is proved.

BackgroundDeafness has an adverse impact on children's ability to acquire spoken languages. Signed languages offer a more accessible input for deaf children, but because the vast majority are born to hearing parents who do not sign, their early exposure to sign language is limited. Deaf children as a whole are therefore at high risk of language delays.AimsWe compared deaf and hearing children's performance on a semantic fluency task. Optimal performance on this task requires a systematic search of the mental lexicon, the retrieval of words within a subcategory and, when that subcategory is exhausted, switching to a new subcategory. We compared retrieval patterns between groups, and also compared the responses of deaf children who used British Sign Language (BSL) with those who used spoken English. We investigated how semantic fluency performance related to children's expressive vocabulary and executive function skills, and also retested semantic fluency in the majority of the children nearly 2 years later, in order to investigate how much progress they had made in that time.Methods & ProceduresParticipants were deaf children aged 6–11 years (N = 106, comprising 69 users of spoken English, 29 users of BSL and eight users of Sign Supported English—SSE) compared with hearing children (N = 120) of the same age who used spoken English. Semantic fluency was tested for the category ‘animals’. We coded for errors, clusters (e.g., ‘pets’, ‘farm animals’) and switches. Participants also completed the Expressive One‐Word Picture Vocabulary Test and a battery of six non‐verbal executive function tasks. In addition, we collected follow‐up semantic fluency data for 70 deaf and 74 hearing children, nearly 2 years after they were first tested.Outcomes & ResultsDeaf children, whether using spoken or signed language, produced fewer items in the semantic fluency task than hearing children, but they showed similar patterns of responses for items most commonly produced, clustering of items into subcategories and switching between subcategories. Both vocabulary and executive function scores predicted the number of correct items produced. Follow‐up data from deaf participants showed continuing delays relative to hearing children 2 years later.Conclusions & ImplicationsWe conclude that semantic fluency can be used experimentally to investigate lexical organization in deaf children, and that it potentially has clinical utility across the heterogeneous deaf population. We present normative data to aid clinicians who wish to use this task with deaf children.

Students in an undergraduate human development course (N = 215) participated in a brief assessment of their reading (comprehension level, reading speed, comprehension rate) and multiple-choice test-taking skills on the second day of class. Students first read a one-page, 400-word passage unrelated to the course and then answered 10 multiple-choice questions over the passage without referring back to the passage. To control for test-taking skills, students also answered 10 multiple-choice questions from an equivalent passage they did not read. Videotapes of student participation permitted individual assessment of time required to complete each phase. Subsequently, during the semester students took five 50-item multiple-choice exams over the major units in the course. Results showed that the brief reading comprehension measures predicted multiple-choice exam performance and that comprehension level accounted for most of the variance in exam performance. Discussion focuses on enhancing brief reading assessment procedures by including direct measures of comprehension. Keywords: Reading Comprehension, Reading Comprehension Rate, Test-taking, College Grades ********** Several measures predict success in college courses, including measures of critical thinking, generic vocabulary, background knowledge, and reading comprehension (Behrman & Street, 2005; Jackson, 2005; Williams & Eggert, 2002; Williams, Oliver, Allin, Winn, & Booher, 2003a; Williams, Oliver, Allin, Winn, & Booher, 2003b; Williams, Oliver, & Stockdale, 2004; Williams & Worth, 2002). Not all course activities require high-level critical thinking, an advanced vocabulary, or background knowledge, but virtually all course activities require student reading of course material (Behrman & Street, 2005). Thus, the current study focused on reading comprehension measures as predictors of success in a large undergraduate course. Although reading comprehension is predictive of student success (Jackson, 2005), reading speed or fluency may also be related to comprehension levels, effort required to read, and reinforcement for reading (Skinner, Pappas, & Davis, 2005). Researchers have measured reading fluency by timing students' oral reading and scoring word accuracy. These data are then used to calculate words correct per minute (WCM), which has been shown to correlate with reading comprehension and other reading skills as measured via standardized, norm-referenced tests with strong psychometric properties (Deno & Merkin, 1977; Deno, Merkin, & Chiang, 1982; Fuchs, & Fuchs, 1992; Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins, 2001; Fuchs, Fuchs, & Maxwell, 1988; Hintze & Shapiro, 1997; Jenkins & Jewell, 1993). These studies provide support for several theories that suggest causal mechanisms for explaining the relationship between reading speed and comprehension. Students who read rapidly and are not required to apply their attention or other cognitive resources (e.g., working memory) towards decoding words have more cognitive resources available to apply towards comprehension. Additionally, as time passes information may become inaccessible (e.g., fading from working memory). Thus, as they read, rapid readers may have access to more information from material read earlier than slow readers, which may enhance their ability to synthesize information as they progress through passages (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974; Perfetti, 1992; Rasinski, 2004; Stanovich, 1986). Reading, like many other skills, improves as people choose to spend more time engaged in the activity (Daly, Chafouleas, & Skinner, 2005; Stanovich, 1986). Even when slower readers are able to comprehend the material at the same level as rapid readers, rapid readers are more likely to choose to read the assigned work because it requires less time and effort and results in a higher rate of reinforcement (Billington, Skinner, Hutchins, & Malone, 2004; Skinner, 1998; Skinner, 2002; Skinner, Neddenriep, Bradley-Klug, & Ziemann, 2002; Skinner, Wallace, & Neddenriep, 2002). …