Spontaneous language production of Italian children with cochlear implants and their mothers in two interactive contexts

Abstract

Background: In recent years many studies have shown that the use of cochlear implants (CIs) improves children's skills in processing the auditory signal and, consequently, the development of both language comprehension and production. Nevertheless, many authors have also reported that the development of language skills in children with CIs is variable and influenced by individual factors (e.g., age at CI activation) and contextual aspects (e.g., maternal linguistic input). Aims: To assess the characteristics of the spontaneous language production of Italian children with CIs, their mothers' input and the relationship between the two during shared book reading and semi-structured play. Methods & Procedures:Twenty preschool children with CIs and 40 typically developing children, 20 matched for chronological age (CATD group) and 20 matched for hearing age (HATD group), were observed during shared book reading and semi-structured play with their mothers. Samples of spontaneous language were transcribed and analysed for each participant. The numbers of types, tokens, mean length of utterance (MLU) and grammatical categories were considered, and the familiarity of each mother's word was calculated. Outcomes & Results:The children with CIs produced shorter utterances than the children in the CATD group. Their mothers produced language with lower levels of lexical variability and grammatical complexity, and higher proportions of verbs with higher familiarity than did the mothers in the other groups during shared book reading. The children's language was more strongly related to that of their mothers in the CI group than in the other groups, and it was associated with the age at CI activation. Conclusions & Implications:The findings suggest that the language of children with CIs is related both to their mothers' input and to age at CI activation. They might prompt suggestions for intervention programs focused on shared-book reading.

Preverbal Production and Early Lexical Development in Children With Cochlear Implants: A Longitudinal Study Following Pre-implanted Children Until 12 Months After Cochlear Implant Activation

“…Verbal language production was also considered. Specifically, tokens (the total number of words) and types (the number of different words) were considered ( Majorano and Lavelli, 2014 ; Majorano et al, 2018 ). In line with other studies, the number of tokens was regarded as an index of speech amount, while the number of types was assumed to be an index of the variability of the language.…”

Long-term effects of cochlear implantation on the intelligibility of speech in French-speaking children

“…Several studies on speech and language acquisition in children with CIs have emphasized the role of early cochlear implantation before two years of age (i.a. Fryauf-Bertschy, Tyler, Kelsay, Gantz, & Woodworth, 1997;Govaerts et al, 2002;Geers, 2004;Artières, Vieu, Mondain, Uziel, & Venail, 2009;Szagun & Schramm, 2016;Majorano et al, 2018) as a predictor to phonological development and language acquisition with a similar trajectory to that of children with typical hearing.…”

Do Acoustic Environment Characteristics Affect the Lexical Development of Children With Cochlear Implants? A Longitudinal Study Before and After Cochlear Implant Activation

“…Early receptive vocabulary size was measured before CI activation and at 3 months after implantation. All children were in the process of acquiring Italian, a language that has only recently gained more attention in this field (Caselli et al, 2012;Majorano, Brondino, et al, 2020;Majorano et al, 2018). We expected 1.…”

“…In some cases, this rapid vocabulary growth after implantation results in spoken abilities that are within the normative range not only by the time the children with CIs reach 10 years of age but also after only a few years of CI use (Cuda et al, 2014;Guerzoni et al, 2016;Murri et al 2015;Nicholas & Geers, 2007Niparko et al, 2010). However, there is great variability in the language outcomes that the children with CIs display after implantation (Caselli et al, 2012;Majorano et al, 2018;Välimaa et al, 2018;Yoshinaga-Itano et al, 2017). While some studies report expressive vocabulary skills that are comparable to those of normal-hearing peers (Wie, 2010;Wie et al, 2020), others show that children with CIs have a reduced spoken vocabulary knowledge as compared to tightly matched children with normal hearing (see Lund, 2016;Nittrouer et al, 2018, for a meta-analysis).…”

“…Among the most studied environmental factors, there are maternal language characteristics and the surrounding acoustic environment. As shown by several researchers, both maternal language quality and quantity play important roles in facilitating language production and in promoting language acquisition in cochlear-implanted children (DesJardin & Eisenberg, 2007;Lavelli et al, 2018;Majorano et al, 2018;Niparko et al, 2010;Pressman et al, 1999;Quittner et al, 2013;Szagun & Stumper, 2012;Tamis-LeMonda et al, 2001). More specifically, better language outcomes have been found when mothers use language facilitation strategies that are more consistent with their child's language level (Cruz et al, 2013), but also when children are exposed to more caregiver input in general (as measured using Language and ENvironmental Analysis [LENA]; Ambrose et al, 2014;Rufsvold et al, 2018).…”