Oral communicating children using a cochlear implant: good reading outcomes are linked to better language and phonological processing abilities.

Introduction/objective: Cochlear implantation provides children with a significant hearing loss the potential to engage in phonological processing via audition; however these children can still have poor or inadequately detailed mental (phonological) representations of speech and as such phonological awareness and reading difficulties. Heterogeneous participant profiles, particularly varying modes of communication have clouded the research regarding reading outcomes of children using a cochlear implant. The objective of this study was to explore the relationships between word reading and reading comprehension outcomes, and a range of variables of a relatively homogenous group of children using cochlear implants.

Method: Forty-seven oral communicating children using a cochlear implant and who had attended auditory-verbal therapy served as participants. They were administered a comprehensive battery of 10 different assessments covering 22 different tasks across the domains of speech perception, speech production, language, phonological processing and reading. Correlation and principal component analyses were used to examine the relationships between outcome areas.

Results: Audiologic and demographic variables were not significantly related to reading outcomes, with the exception of family size. Language and word reading were most strongly related to reading comprehension, while phonological awareness and language were most strongly related to word reading. It is proposed that the development of well-specified phonological representations might underlie these relationships.

Conclusion: For oral communicating children using a cochlear implant, good reading outcomes are linked to better language and phonological processing abilities.