Extensive research has demonstrated the benefits of cochlear implants (CI) in contributing to improve the linguistic skills of children with hearing impairment; however, few studies have focused on the development of pragmatic ability and its relationship with age of implantation. Pragmatics is the ability to use language in different contexts and its development has crucial implications, e.g., social inclusion and professional attainments. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of pragmatic ability using the Language Pragmatic Abilities (APL Medea), a battery composed by five different tasks: Comprehension of Metaphors, Implicit meaning, Comics, Situations and Colors Game (a perspective taking task). Eighteen children with early CI, belonging to 3 different age groups (6; 11–7; 11, 8; 0–8; 11 and 9; 0–9; 11 years-old), and twenty-four children with typical development (Control Group) participated to the study. We also investigated how the precocity of CI, i.e., age of first implantation, may affect the pragmatic development. Globally, children with CI obtained lower scores in the APL Medea battery than typically hearing children. However, focusing on the Medea tasks separately, children with CIs differed from their hearing peers only in Comics and Colors Game tasks. Finally, age of implantation was a moderate but significant predictor of pragmatic performance.

Children with hearing impairment and early cochlear implant: A pragmatic assessment

Hilviu Dize
First
;
Parola Alberto
;
Consolino Patrizia;Bosco Francesca Marina
Last
2021-01-01

Abstract

Extensive research has demonstrated the benefits of cochlear implants (CI) in contributing to improve the linguistic skills of children with hearing impairment; however, few studies have focused on the development of pragmatic ability and its relationship with age of implantation. Pragmatics is the ability to use language in different contexts and its development has crucial implications, e.g., social inclusion and professional attainments. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of pragmatic ability using the Language Pragmatic Abilities (APL Medea), a battery composed by five different tasks: Comprehension of Metaphors, Implicit meaning, Comics, Situations and Colors Game (a perspective taking task). Eighteen children with early CI, belonging to 3 different age groups (6; 11–7; 11, 8; 0–8; 11 and 9; 0–9; 11 years-old), and twenty-four children with typical development (Control Group) participated to the study. We also investigated how the precocity of CI, i.e., age of first implantation, may affect the pragmatic development. Globally, children with CI obtained lower scores in the APL Medea battery than typically hearing children. However, focusing on the Medea tasks separately, children with CIs differed from their hearing peers only in Comics and Colors Game tasks. Finally, age of implantation was a moderate but significant predictor of pragmatic performance.
2021
Inglese
Esperti anonimi
7
7
1
9
9
https://www.cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(21)01531-0?_returnURL=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2405844021015310?showall=true
Pragmatic language Hearing impairment Cochlear implant Early intervention
no
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262
6
Hilviu Dize, Parola Alberto, Vivaldo Sara, Di Lisi Diego, Consolino Patrizia, Bosco Francesca Marina
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
open
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1828863
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