Verbal working memory resources and comprehension of relative clauses in children with cochlear implants

Abstract

Verbal working memory resources may impact syntax comprehension. Thirteen Italian children with cochlear implants (CIs) were assessed in relative clause (RC) comprehension, digit span and nonword repetition and compared to 13 chronological age peers (CA) and 13 younger controls (LA) with normal hearing (NH). The RC comprehension task tested subject relatives (SR), object relatives with preverbal (OR) and postverbal subjects (ORp) where number features were manipulated. Children with CIs show worse performance than controls in RC comprehension and nonword repetition. In the RC task, number features facilitated comprehension by children with NH, but not by children with CIs. The memory measure that predicted RC comprehension was digit span. In the LA group, backward digit span predicted comprehension of all RC types. Forward digit span predicted comprehension of ORs with number mismatch in the CA group, and comprehension of ORs with number mismatch and ORps in children with CIs. In these conditions, high memory resources are needed to exploit number features in theta-role assignment.

Production of third-person direct object clitics in children with cochlear implants speaking Italian

“…Finally yet importantly, the results of the present study add to the growing literature on the language abilities of Italian-speaking deaf children with CIs (Volpato 2011;Caselli et al, 2012;Rinaldi, Baruffaldi, Burdo, and Caselli, 2013;Guasti et al, 2014;Volpato and Vernice, 2014;Murri, Cuda, Guerzoni, and Fabrizi, 2015;D'Ortenzio and Volpato, 2019;Giustolisi et al, 2019;Volpato, 2020). As discussed by Guasti et al (2014), language typology is a key factor in language development; therefore, it is important to provide detailed descriptions of the linguistic behaviors of children with CIs speaking languages other than English, for which the amount of literature is very sparse compared to that on English-speaking children with CIs (for a review, see Nittrouer and Caldwell-Tarr, 2016) Table 5.…”

Cognitive Abilities of school-aged Children with Cochlear Implants: A Systematic Review

“…Eleven studies could be included in this systematic review (Akçakaya et al, 2019;Hall et al, 2018;López-Higes et al, 2015;Schouwenaars et al, 2019;Torkildsen et al, 2018;Volpato, 2020). Only six of them had the comparison of cognitive skills as their focus (Akçakaya et al, 2019;Engel-Yeger et al, 2011;Hall et al, 2018;Torkildsen et al, 2018;Volpato, 2020;Yucel & Derim, 2008). There is a lack of research on the cognitive abilities of school-aged children with CI.…”

Some notes on language, memory and bilingualism

“…Another study looks at the language of children with Down Syndrome (Penke & Wimmer, 2020). The final study by Volpato (2020) examines the language of children who had not been exposed to language at birth: these are deaf children fitted with a cochlear implant. Not only a wide range of conditions but also a variety of languages are considered: Russian-Hebrew (bilingual and monolingual children with HFA), Albanian/Russian–Greek, different L1–French (bilingual and monolingual children with DLD), English (children with SLD), German (children with Down Syndrome), and Italian (children fitted with CI).…”