Predictors of vocabulary outcomes in children who are deaf or hard of hearing from spanish-speaking families

Beatriz de Diego-Lázaro, Maria Restrepo, Allison Lee Sedey, Christine Yoshinaga-Itano

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    8 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Purpose: The goal of this study was to identify predictors of expressive vocabulary in young Spanish-speaking children who are deaf or hard of hearing living in the United States. Method: This cross-sectional study considered 53 children with bilateral hearing loss between 8 and 34 months of age (M = 24, SD = 6.9). Demographic variables, variables related to the hearing loss, and intervention variables were included in a hierarchical regression analysis to predict expressive vocabulary quotients from the MacArthur Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas (Communicative Development Inventories; Jackson-Maldonado et al., 2003). Results: Chronological age, degree of hearing loss, functional hearing ability ratings, age of enrollment in early intervention, and the interaction between chronological age and age of intervention accounted for 61.5% of the vocabulary variance. Children who received intervention by 6 months of age achieved significantly higher vocabulary outcomes than children who started intervention later. Conclusion: The children’s mean vocabulary outcomes were below average when compared with hearing peers. This was especially true for older children, children with moderately-severe-to-profound hearing loss, and children who began intervention after 6 months of age. This delay in vocabulary outcomes has the potential to interfere with future reading and academic outcomes.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)113-128
    Number of pages16
    JournalLanguage, speech, and hearing services in schools
    Volume50
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2019

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Language and Linguistics
    • Linguistics and Language
    • Speech and Hearing

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