Narrative spoken language skills in severely hearing impaired school-aged children with cochlear implants.
Early bilateral cochlear implants before age two give deaf kids a real shot at age-level storytelling, but subtle grammar and content gaps often remain.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Boons et al. (2013) looked at how well deaf children with cochlear implants can tell a story. They compared the kids' spoken stories to stories told by hearing classmates.
The team checked how long the stories were, how well they hung together, and how rich the ideas were. They also noted how fast the kids produced words.
What they found
The implanted kids talked a lot and their stories made basic sense. Yet the details, grammar, and speed were weaker than their hearing peers.
A small group who got bilateral implants before age two and had no extra disabilities hit age-level narrative scores. Early surgery plus spoken-only language input mattered most.
How this fits with other research
Boons et al. (2013) directly replicates Boons et al. (2013). Both papers from the same year show the same split picture: about half of early-implanted kids reach age-level language while half still lag.
Bouck et al. (2016) extends this work. They found deaf children can match hearing peers on story structure but still stumble on tiny grammar clues and inferences. The two studies line up: macro skills look fine, micro skills need work.
Meinzen-Derr et al. (2011) seems to contradict Tinne by reporting large language delays, but their sample included children with extra developmental disabilities. Once you remove those kids, the gap shrinks to the mixed pattern Tinne reports.
Why it matters
If you serve deaf students with implants, check both story length and story quality. A fluent-sounding tale can still hide weak grammar and missing details. Push for bilateral implantation before age two when possible, and keep language goals in the IEP even when the child sounds 'fine' in casual chat.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Cochlear implants have a significant positive effect on spoken language development in severely hearing impaired children. Previous work in this population has focused mostly on the emergence of early-developing language skills, such as vocabulary. The current study aims at comparing narratives, which are more complex and later-developing spoken language skills, of a contemporary group of profoundly deaf school-aged children using cochlear implants (n=66, median age=8 years 3 months) with matched normal hearing peers. Results show that children with cochlear implants demonstrate good results on quantity and coherence of the utterances, but problematic outcomes on quality, content and efficiency of retold stories. However, for a subgroup (n=20, median age=8 years 1 month) of deaf children without additional disabilities who receive cochlear implantation before the age of 2 years, use two implants, and are raised with one spoken language, age-adequate spoken narrative skills at school-age are feasible. This is the first study to set the goals regarding spoken narrative skills for deaf children using cochlear implants.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.07.033