Linear Mixed-Model Analysis to Examine Longitudinal Trajectories in Vocabulary Depth and Breadth in Children Who Are Hard of Hearing

Abstract

Purpose Children who are hard of hearing (CHH) tend to have reduced vocabularies compared to children with normal hearing (CNH). Prior research on vocabulary skills in children with hearing loss has focused primarily on their breadth of knowledge (how many words are known). Depth of vocabulary knowledge (how well words are known) is not well documented for CHH. The current study used linear mixed models (LMMs) to investigate growth trajectories of vocabulary depth and breadth in CHH relative to age-matched CNH. Method Participants for this study included 155 children (93 CHH, 62 CNH) enrolled in a longitudinal study. Examiners administered a standardized measure of vocabulary knowledge at ages 7, 8, and 9 years. We constructed multiple LMMs with fixed effects for group and age. The models included various combinations of random intercepts for subject and item and random slope for age. Results For depth, CHH showed significant and stable deficits compared to CNH over time. For breadth, CNH showed greater vocabulary breadth, but the group differences diminished with age. For CHH, higher aided audibility, age, and maternal educational level were associated with greater vocabulary breadth and depth. Age at hearing aid fitting was not. Conclusions A major advantage of using LMM is that it allowed us to cope with missing data points while still accounting for variability within and across participants. Assessment of both vocabulary breadth and depth may be useful in identifying school-age CHH who are at risk of delays in language outcomes.

Predictors of Reading Comprehension in Children With Cochlear Implants

“…This may be of particular interest as new findings suggest that vocabulary depth may be hard to catch up at later ages (c.f. Walker et al, 2019). The findings from the current research are of clinical importance as delays in spoken vocabulary in children with CI have been reported in a number of studies (Geers et al, 2009; Fagan and Pisoni, 2010; Stiles et al, 2012; Coppens et al, 2013).…”

“…When it comes to the general cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading comprehension, children with CI have typically been found to perform more poorly than hearing peers on both decoding (Geers, 2003; Geers and Hayes, 2011; Nakeva von Mentzer et al, 2014), vocabulary (Geers et al, 2009; Fagan and Pisoni, 2010; Dillon et al, 2011; Coppens et al, 2013; Walker et al, 2019) and spoken language comprehension (e.g., Geers et al, 2009), as well as phonological and complex working memory (e.g., Wass et al, 2008). This would, in turn, suggest generally poorer preconditions for reading comprehension in this group of children.…”

Auditory, Cognitive, and Linguistic Factors Predict Speech Recognition in Adverse Listening Conditions for Children With Hearing Loss

“…The degree to which hearing loss limits speech audibility has been explored as a predictor of unaided (Scollie, 2008) and aided (Stiles et al, 2012; McCreery et al, 2015, 2017) speech recognition for children. In general, studies have found that children with hearing loss who have greater aided audibility for speech have better aided speech recognition in quiet (McCreery et al, 2015) and in noise (McCreery et al, 2017; Walker et al, 2019).…”

“…Mediation models (Baron and Kenny, 1986) have been used to examine the pattern of associations between outcomes and predictors that are inter-related. A recent study by Walker et al (2019) used a mediation analysis to determine if the effects of audibility on speech recognition for a gated word recognition task were direct or mediated by the relationship between audibility and language skills. The results suggested that audibility was related to both language and gated speech recognition, supporting both immediate, and cumulative influences of audibility.…”

Executive Functions, Pragmatic Skills, and Mental Health in Children With Congenital Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Infection With Cochlear Implants: A Pilot Study

“…Executive functions (EF) are connected to frontal lobe capacity (Kave et al, 2008) and represent underlying, interrelated processing skills, such as working memory, attention, and inhibition/flexibility, which all are important for several functions like communication, social cognition, and learning (Miyake et al, 2000;Diamond, 2013). Children with CI form a heterogeneous population with considerable variation, especially in EF (Figueras et al, 2008;Beer et al, 2014;Kronenberger et al, 2014) but also in the spoken language outcome (Boons et al, 2012;Löfkvist et al, 2012;Walker et al, 2019) and mental health (Hintermair, 2007;Anmyr et al, 2012;Lingås-Haukedal et al, 2018). Poor EF in children with CI may negatively influence pragmatic skills, and especially in subgroups with known comorbid conditions like children with a cCMV infection.…”