Shared characteristics of intervention techniques for oral vocabulary and speech comprehensibility in preschool children with co-occurring features of developmental language disorder and speech sound disorder: a systematic review with narrative synthesis.

Objectives: To descriptively compare and contrast intervention techniques for preschool children with features of developmental language disorder (outcome: oral vocabulary) and speech sound disorder (outcome: speech comprehensibility) and analyse them in relation to effectiveness and theory.

Design: This is a systematic review with narrative synthesis. The process was supported by an expert steering group consisting of relevant professionals and people with lived experience.

Assessing parent-child interaction with deaf and hard of hearing infants aged 0-3 years: An international multi-professional e-Delphi.

Introduction: Most deaf babies are born to hearing families who do not yet have the skills to communicate effectively with their child. Adaptations to communication are important because the quality of parent-child interaction (PCI) predicts how a deaf child develops language. Teachers of Deaf children and Speech and Language Therapists support families with communication in the home.

"It doesn't matter if we're the most amazing professionals in the world…" A qualitative study of professionals' perspectives on parent-child interaction assessment with deaf infants.

Introduction: Parent child interaction (PCI) is positively associated with deaf children's language development. However, there are no known, deaf-specific tools to observe how a parent interacts with their deaf child aged 0-3 years. Without a framework for professionals to use with families, it is unknown how professionals assess PCI, what they assess, why they assess, and how the assessment results relate to case management.

Identifying Developmental Language Disorder in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants: A Case Study of Three Children.

(1) Background: While spoken language learning delays are assumed for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children after cochlear implant (CI), many catch up with their hearing peers. Some DHH children with CIs, however, show persistent delays in language, despite protective factors being in place. This suggests a developmental language disorder (DLD).

Shared characteristics of intervention techniques for oral vocabulary and speech comprehensibility in preschool children with co-occurring features of developmental language disorder and a phonological speech sound disorder: protocol for a systematic review with narrative synthesis.

Introduction: Evidence suggests that over one-third of young children with developmental language disorder (DLD) or speech sound disorder (SSD) have co-occurring features of both. A co-occurring DLD and SSD profile is associated with negative long-term outcomes relating to communication, literacy and emotional well-being. However, the best treatment approach for young children with this profile is not understood.

Executive Function in Deaf Native Signing Children.

The aim of this study is twofold: To examine if deafness is invariably associated with deficits in executive function (EF) and to investigate the relationship between sign language proficiency and EF in deaf children of deaf parents with early exposure to a sign language. It is also the first study of EF in children acquiring Polish Sign Language. Even though the mothers of the deaf children (N = 20) had lower levels of education compared with the mothers of a hearing control group, the children performed similarly to their hearing peers (N = 20) on a variety of EF task-based assessments.

Assessing parent interaction with deaf infants: A quantitative survey of UK professional practice.

Background: Between 90% and 95% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who often need support with how to adapt their communication. Parent-child interaction (PCI) is an important predictor of deaf children's future language development. It is therefore necessary for professionals to assess parents' strengths and needs to identify areas for intervention.

Pre-linguistic social communication skills and post implant language outcomes in deaf children with cochlear implants.

Purpose: This study investigates the relationship between pre-linguistic social communication skills and age of cochlear implant for future language outcomes in a large sample of deaf children.

Method: A retrospective cohort study of records from 75 children. Pre-implant data included Age at Implant, pre-linguistic communication (social, symbolic and speech) skills, and non-verbal ability.

Assessing Parent Behaviours in Parent-Child Interactions with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants Aged 0-3 Years: A Systematic Review.

Background: Despite early identification and advancements in cochlear implant and hearing aid technology, delays in language skills in deaf children continue to exist. Good-quality parent-child interaction (PCI) is a key predictor for the successful development of deaf children's signed and/or spoken language. Though professionals have standard assessments to monitor child language, a clinical tool to observe the quality of parental interaction is yet to be developed.

Lexical organization in deaf children who use British Sign Language: evidence from a semantic fluency task.

We adapted the semantic fluency task into British Sign Language (BSL). In Study 1, we present data from twenty-two deaf signers aged four to fifteen. We show that the same 'cognitive signatures' that characterize this task in spoken languages are also present in deaf children, for example, the semantic clustering of responses.

Adapting the Assessing British Sign Language Development: Receptive Skills Test into American sign language.

Signed languages continue to be a key element of deaf education programs that incorporate a bilingual approach to teaching and learning. In order to monitor the success of bilingual deaf education programs, and in particular to monitor the progress of children acquiring signed language, it is essential to develop an assessment tool of signed language skills. Although researchers have developed some checklists and experimental tests related to American Sign Language (ASL) assessment, at this time a standardized measure of ASL does not exist.

Identifying specific language impairment in deaf children acquiring British Sign Language: implications for theory and practice.

This paper presents the first ever group study of specific language impairment (SLI) in users of sign language. A group of 50 children were referred to the study by teachers and speech and language therapists. Individuals who fitted pre-determined criteria for SLI were then systematically assessed.

Early vocabulary development in deaf native signers: a British Sign Language adaptation of the communicative development inventories.

Background: There is a dearth of assessments of sign language development in young deaf children. This study gathered age-related scores from a sample of deaf native signing children using an adapted version of the MacArthur-Bates CDI (Fenson et al., 1994).

Language impairments in sign language: breakthroughs and puzzles.

Background: Specific language impairment has previously solely been documented for children acquiring spoken languages, despite informal reports of deaf children with possible sign language disorder. The paper reports the case of a deaf child exposed to British Sign Language (BSL) from birth, who has significant developmental deficits in the comprehension and production of BSL grammar based on formal assessment and linguistic analyses of his sign communication in comparison with age-matched unimpaired signers.

Results: It is shown that linguistic difficulties with BSL verb morphology underlie the child's poor performance compared with same-age native signers.

The development of complex verb constructions in British Sign Language.

This study focuses on the mapping of events onto verb-argument structures in British Sign Language (BSL). The development of complex sentences in BSL is described in a group of 30 children, aged 3;2-12;0, using data from comprehension measures and elicited sentence production. The findings support two interpretations: firstly, in the mapping of concepts onto language, children acquiring BSL overgeneralize the use of argument structure related to perspective shifting; secondly, these overgeneralizations are predicted by the typological characteristics of the language and modality.