A descriptive study of language and literacy skills of early school-aged children with unilateral and mild to moderate bilateral hearing loss

ABSTRACT

According to population-based prevalence data, more than 40% of children diagnosed with a hearing impairment have a mild to moderate bilateral or unilateral hearing loss. Prior to newborn hearing screening, these degrees of loss were not identified until early school-age. While studies highlight the challenges of late-identified children with such a loss, little is known about the effects of early identification. This descriptive study explored the impact of mild to moderate bilateral and unilateral hearing loss on children in the early school years. Thirty-two children (aged 5–9 years) were evaluated cross-sectionally with a battery of tests to measure speech-language, phonology, and components of literacy skills. Parents also completed a questionnaire on functional auditory skills. Most outcomes were within the range of expected scores for children with typical hearing. In most cases, however, parent-reported functional auditory skills were lower than published norms. Some phonological processing skills were also below the average expected for children with typical hearing. In particular, 46.4% of children were below one standard deviation of the normative mean on the phonological memory score. Subgroup comparisons between children with unilateral (n = 17) and bilateral (n = 15) hearing loss showed no difference on all outcomes (p > 0.05). While scores should be interpreted with caution given the small sample size, findings reinforce the need for additional research on children with mild to moderate bilateral and unilateral hearing loss who benefit from early identification.

KEYWORDS:

• Mild
• bilateral
• unilateral
• hearing loss
• language
• phonology
• functional auditory skills

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the families who participated in this research and to the providers who informed parents about the study and provided us with audiological information. E. Fitzpatrick also acknowledges support from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (Early Researcher Award).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Flora Nassrallah is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Ottawa. She is involved in pediatric hearing loss research in the Child Hearing Laboratory at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute. In particular, she has been working on projects focused on children with mild and unilateral hearing loss.

Elizabeth M. Fitzpatrick is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa and a Senior Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute. She has authored books and articles related to hearing loss in children and adults. Her current research is focused on the epidemiology of pediatric hearing disorders and on communication and related developmental outcomes for children with hearing loss.

JoAnne Whittingham is the Research Coordinator for the Chid Hearing Lab at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute. She has coordinated numerous studies related to hearing loss in children as well as studies related to adults with cochlear implants. Current research projects are focused on children with mild and unilateral hearing loss as well as the epidemiology of pediatric hearing disorders in general.

Huidan Sun is a Speech-Language Pathologist who is active both in clinical and research settings. She works with various pediatric populations within the Ottawa region through her work as a research member of the Child Hearing Laboratory at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute and as a First Words clinician. Her areas of interest are in regard to the impact of hearing loss in children with language/developmental delays and the development of standardized clinical tools, in particularly in French.

Eunjung Na is a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa. She is also a research assistant for the Child Hearing Laboratory at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute.

Viviane Grandpierre is a Research Coordinator at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Department of Surgery, as well as a research consultant for topics related to cultural competence in healthcare services.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation - Early Researcher Award.