Hearing Loss Health Literacy in Speech-Language Pathologists: Impact of Academic Training and On-the-Job Experience.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore if academic training and/or on-the-job experience predicts general health literacy, hearing loss health literacy, and self confidence levels of speech-language pathologists (SLPs).

Method: Participants included 423 SLPs with differing levels of academic training and on-the-job experience working with children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). General health literacy, hearing loss health literacy, and confidence levels treating children who are DHH were assessed.

Parent-Reported Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder-Linked Behaviors, Fatigue, and Language in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find out if children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH), particularly those without substantially delayed language, appear to be at risk for overreporting of inattentive and hyperactive behaviors and if attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) measures are influenced by the presence of language-based items, by child language skills, and by child and parent report of fatigue.

Method: This study included 24 children with typical hearing, 13 children with hearing aids (HA), and 16 children with cochlear implants (CI) in second through sixth grade. Parents of children in each group completed a measure reporting on inattentive and hyperactive behaviors, social and academic outcomes, and general fatigue for their child.

The Utility of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills as a Literacy Screener for Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to (a) compare outcomes between children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) and children with typical hearing (CTH) on the DIBELS Eighth Edition assessment and (b) compare outcomes of children who are DHH on the DIBELS to other standardized literacy assessments.

Method: Participants included 19 children who are DHH and 19 CTH in kindergarten or first grade. All participants who are DHH had bilateral hearing loss and used listening technology.

High General Health Literacy Does Not Ensure Hearing Loss Health Literacy in Mothers of Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to characterize general health literacy and hearing loss health literacy for mothers of children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH).

Method: Participants included 25 mothers of 2-year-old and 3-year-old children who had a diagnosis of permanent, bilateral hearing loss for at least 1 year. Measures of general health literacy and hearing loss health literacy were collected.

Lexical-Semantic Organization as Measured by Repeated Word Association in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Who Use Spoken Language.

Purpose: This study compares responses of children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) who use spoken language with responses of children who have typical hearing on a repeated word association task to evaluate lexical-semantic organization.

Method: This study included 109 participants in early kindergarten or who had completed first grade. The younger group included 30 children with typical hearing, 22 with hearing aids, and 21 with cochlear implants.

The Contribution of Phonological Processing to Reading and Spelling in Students With Cochlear Implants.

Purpose: Children with cochlear implants (CIs) have difficulty with literacy, and although it is established that phonological processing underlies literacy skills in children with typical hearing (TH), the relation of phonological processing and literacy in children with CIs is not fully understood. This study evaluated the contributions of phonological processing to word-level reading and spelling skills of children with CIs.

Method: Thirty children with CIs and 31 children with TH in Grades 3 through 6 completed measures of word reading, spelling, and phonological processing.

A Longitudinal Investigation of Code-Related Emergent Literacy Skills in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Across the Preschool Years.

Purpose: The purpose of this longitudinal investigation was to compare the developmental trajectories of code-related emergent literacy skills of children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) who use amplification and spoken language across the preschool years.

Method: Thirty children who are DHH and 31 children with typical hearing completed a language and emergent literacy assessment at 6-month intervals from age 4 through 6 years. Growth curve analysis was used to compare developmental trajectories between groups of the code-related skills of phonological awareness, phonological memory, phonological recoding, alphabet knowledge, and conceptual print knowledge.

Early Experiences of Parents of Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Navigating through Identification, Intervention, and Beyond.

Guidelines created by the American Academy of Pediatrics ([AAP], 2010) and the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing ([JCIH], 2019) were designed to aid in the early identification of infant hearing loss. Despite these guidelines, a quarter of children who do not pass their initial screening are lost to the follow-up process and many more do not receive care in line with the 1-3-6 guidelines (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2018; JCIH, 2019). To acquire more information about the experiences of families and identify specific barriers to timely diagnosis and intervention, interviews were conducted with 13 parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing whose children were enrolled in a larger longitudinal study.

Impact of Meeting Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Benchmarks on Spoken Language.

This study compared preschool spoken language outcomes for children with hearing loss who met Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) guidelines to those who did not, as well as to compare outcomes for those who met current EHDI guidelines to those who met earlier benchmarks. Finally, the predictive role of meeting each component of the guidelines was evaluated relative to language outcomes. Children who met the EHDI guidelines had higher language scores than those who did not; however, there was no difference between children who met the current guidelines and those who met the earlier benchmarks.

Impact of FM System Use on Acquisition of Phonological Awareness Skills for Children at Risk of Dyslexia: A Preliminary Classroom Study.

Purpose: This study evaluated the effects of utilizing a frequency modulation (FM) system during phonological awareness intervention for students at risk for dyslexia in a classroom setting.

Method: Four first-grade students participated in an adapted-alternating single-case design study. Participants completed intervention targeting two phonological awareness skills and were assigned to wear an FM system during lessons targeting one skill and no FM system during lessons targeting the second skill.

The Effects of Virtual Assessment on Capturing Skill Growth in Children With Hearing Loss.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of switching from in-person assessment to virtual assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic on the growth trajectories of children with hearing loss who are learning spoken language.

Method: Sixty-eight children with typical hearing, 44 children with cochlear implants, and 47 children with hearing aids were assessed with a norm-referenced measure of receptive vocabulary, a criterion-referenced measure of phonological awareness, and a criterion-referenced measure of conceptual print knowledge at least 4 times, at 6-month intervals, between the ages of 4 and 6 years. Of those participants, 26 children with typical hearing, 13 children with cochlear implants, and 13 children with hearing aids entered virtual testing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oral Language Acquisition in Preschool Children Who are Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing.

The purpose of this study was to compare developmental trajectories of oral language acquisition of children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and children with typical hearing across the preschool years. Thirty children who are DHH who use amplification and spoken language and 31 children with typical hearing completed an early language and literacy assessment battery every six months from age 4 to age 6. The developmental trajectories of each group's language skills were examined via growth curve analysis.

Location Effects on Spoken Language and Literacy for Children who are DHH.

The purpose of this study was to consider how living in an area that qualifies for a rural health grant interacts with a child's hearing status to affect early language and literacy development. Four-year-old children with hearing aids (n = 45), cochlear implants (n = 47), and with typical hearing (n = 66) completed measures of spoken language knowledge and of emergent literacy skills as part of a larger longitudinal investigation. A significant interaction effect between location (rural or urban/suburban) and amplification group was detected for letter knowledge: children with hearing aids exhibit a performance that is particularly affected by rural location.

Transitioning Speech-Language Assessment to a Virtual Environment: Lessons Learned From the ELLA Study.

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a quick shift to virtual speech-language services; however, only a small percentage of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) had previously engaged in telepractice. The purpose of this clinical tutorial is (a) to describe how the Early Language and Literacy Acquisition in Children with Hearing Loss study, a longitudinal study involving speech-language assessment with children with and without hearing loss, transitioned from in-person to virtual assessment and (b) to provide tips for optimizing virtual assessment procedures. Method We provide an overview of our decision making during the transition to virtual assessment.

Linguistic Predictors of Single-Word Spelling in First Grade Students with Speech and/or Language Impairments.

The purpose of this study was (a) to compare the single-word spelling performance of first graders across four groups that varied by speech and language status; and (b) to determine the linguistic predictors of first-grade spelling for children with speech and/or language impairment compared to children with typical development. First grade children ( = 529) completed measures of spelling, early word reading, expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness, and morphosyntactic knowledge. Children with language impairment, with or without speech impairments, demonstrated lower spelling performance than children with typical development; children with speech impairment only did not differ from children with typical development.

Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Print Knowledge in Preschool Children with Hearing Loss.

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to examine evidence that (a) published measures may tap different categories of print knowledge and result in disparate findings in the literature, (b) concept vocabulary knowledge in children with hearing loss may exacerbate deficits in conceptual print knowledge, and (c) concept vocabulary can be taught via direct instruction for preschool children with hearing loss.

Method: In Study 1, an item analysis of published print knowledge measures was performed to determine the prevalence of concept vocabulary in test items. Additionally, the performance on a conceptual print knowledge measure was compared for preschool children with and without hearing loss.

The Production of Complex Syntax in Spontaneous Language by 4-Year-Old Children With Hearing Loss.

Purpose Proficiency with complex syntax is important for language and reading comprehension, and production of complex syntax begins to emerge shortly after a young child begins using two-word combinations. Complex syntax production in preschool children with hearing loss who use spoken language has been explored minimally. The purpose of this study was to compare complex syntax production of 4-year-old children with hearing loss to age-matched and language-matched peers with normal hearing.

Nonverbal Intelligence Predicts Performance of Preschool Children With Hearing Loss on Norm-Referenced Language Measures But Not Language Sample Analysis.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of nonverbal intelligence on spoken language performance in children with hearing loss who use amplification and spoken language. Specifically, we compared language performance measured by norm-referenced measures compared with spontaneous language sample measures.

Design: Nonverbal intelligence and spoken language skills were analyzed using norm-referenced nonverbal intelligence and language assessments and language sample analyses in 92 children ages 3 to 6 who varied by hearing and nonverbal intelligence status.

An Exploration of Early Spelling in Kindergarten Children With Hearing Loss.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine if group differences exist in spelling accuracy or spelling errors between kindergarten children with hearing loss and children with normal hearing loss. Method Participants included 23 kindergarten children with hearing loss and 21 children with normal hearing. All children used spoken English as their primary language, and the children with hearing loss used amplification.

The Relation Between Linguistic Awareness Skills and Spelling in Adults: A Comparison Among Scoring Procedures.

Purpose Spelling is a skill that relies on an individual's linguistic awareness, the ability to overtly manipulate language. The ability to accurately spell is important for academic and career success into adulthood. The spelling skills of adults have received some attention in the literature, but there is limited information regarding which approach for analyzing adults' spelling is optimal for guiding instruction or intervention for those who struggle.

Toward Understanding the Lexical-Morphological Networks of Children With Specific Language Impairment: Analysis of Responses on a Morphological Production Task.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to characterize the lexical-morphological networks of children with specific language impairment (SLI) compared to children with typical language by analyzing responses on a morphological derived form production task. Method School-age children with SLI ( = 32) and peers with typical language ( = 40) completed an oral cloze derived form production task (Carlisle, 2000). On this task, children were expected to complete verbally presented sentences with a derived form of a provided morphological stem.

Teaching Phonological Awareness to Children with Hearing Loss who Use Spoken Language: Six Big Ideas.

Purpose: Because children with hearing loss experience difficulty in developing word decoding and spelling skills, effective phonological awareness instruction for this population is vital. Children with hearing loss are often delayed in their development of phonological awareness compared to peers with normal hearing; however, the developmental progression appears to be the same for both groups of children. Some modifications to typical phonological awareness instruction are warranted for this population.

Home Literacy Environment and Emergent Skills in Preschool Children With Hearing Loss.

Home literacy practices reported by parents of preschool children with hearing loss were compared to those reported by parents of their peers with typical hearing. Parents completed a questionnaire from Boudreau, D. (2005.

Linguistic Contributions to Word-Level Spelling Accuracy in Elementary School Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment.

Purpose Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are more likely than children with typical language (TL) to exhibit difficulties in word-level spelling accuracy. More research is needed to elucidate the contribution of linguistic knowledge to word-level spelling accuracy in this population. The purpose of this study was to explore the contributions of linguistic knowledge to spelling accuracy in a group of 2nd- to 4th-grade children with SLI and a group of 2nd- to 4th-grade children with TL.