This paper reviews Keilmann et al.'s (2011) study comparing speech and language disorders in children with hearing impairment (HI) and those with specific language impairment (SLI). The study matched 24 children with HI to 24 children with SLI of the same age, sex, and language severity, then assessed receptive language, vocabulary, grammar, and phonology. The review summarizes the study's methodology, findings, and clinical implications, noting that while both groups show phonological short-term memory deficits, HI children are more affected in receptive language skills, whereas SLI children are more affected in expressive skills. The paper concludes by discussing how these findings can guide more targeted clinical interventions.
Keilmann et al.'s (2011) study, Manifestation of Speech and Language Disorders in Children with Hearing Impairment Compared with Children with Specific Language Disorders, examined the relationship between language deficits among children with hearing impairment (HI) compared to those with specific language impairment (SLI). By studying the receptive language skills of 5- and 6-year-old children with HI and SLI, the researchers concluded that the receptive language skills of children with HI were more severely impaired. They also asserted the importance of phonological short-term memory impairment in both groups, although the underlying causes differ. Finally, the authors concluded that language deficits caused by hearing impairment affect receptive language skills more than expressive ones.
When a child grows up with a hearing impairment, it often affects the child's ability to speak. The severity of speech and language disorders caused by hearing impairment has been found to be related to the degree of HI, the age at which treatment begins, and the degree of maternal involvement. However, children with hearing impairments are not the only ones who develop speech disorders; children with normal hearing can also develop specific language impairment (SLI).
While the exact causes of SLI are not fully understood, researchers have identified a connection between SLI and problems with a child's phonological short-term memory. A similar relationship has been discovered in children with HI. Additional research has concluded that while children with SLI may have an intrinsic limitation in their phonological memory capacity, the memory capacity of children with HI appears to be overtaxed by their hearing deficiency. The authors of the current study sought to examine the relationship between receptive language skill deficiencies in children with HI compared to those with SLI, with particular attention to understanding the causes and role of phonological short-term memory deficits.
Subjects for the study were chosen from a pool of children enrolled in an intensive speech, language, and perception training course who had received at least one year of outside treatment. From 242 children enrolled in the course, 24 children with hearing impairment were selected — 17 boys and 7 girls. These children had been diagnosed with bilateral, sensorineural hearing impairment and had used hearing aids prior to the study, though none had the progression of their hearing loss documented. As part of the study, "each child with HI was matched to a child with SLI that was the same age, the same sex, and had nearly the same severity of speech and language disorder, and non-verbal intelligence" (Keilmann, 2011, p. 13). Severity of speech and language disorder was assessed by testing each child's receptive language skills, vocabulary, grammar, and output phonology.
While the researchers did not use a traditional control group unaffected by any hearing loss, the children with HI effectively served as the reference group for this study, as the SLI group was matched and compared to them. The children with HI had their receptive language skills tested with the Reynell Developmental Language Scales I, their vocabulary tested with the Aktiver Wortschatztest 3–6, grammar with the Ravensburger Dysgrammatiker Prüfmaterial, and phonology by means of the Neuer Mainzer Lautstatus picture-naming test. The paired children with SLI were tested identically. As the study was conducted in Germany, all language tests were administered in German by a clinical psychologist "with experience in working with deaf children and those with severe language impairment" (Keilmann, 2011, p. 13). Statistical analysis of the data was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
"Key results on receptive vs. expressive language deficits"
"Tailoring treatments based on cause of language impairment"
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