Language outcomes and service provision of preschool children with congenital hearing loss

Abstract

Background: Children with congenital hearing loss (HL) are at increased risk of speech and language delays and require increased resource needs.

Methods: Assessments of language, adaptive behavior, and resource needs at mean age of 60±5 months. Effects of age of enrollment in Early Intervention (EI) and degree of HL were evaluated.

Results: Children with HL had lower Reynell verbal comprehension scores (77.6±18 versus 94.8±15; p=0.0001) and expressive language scores (85.9±19 versus 97.4±15; p=0.0051) than hearing children. Children with HL enrolled in EI ≤3 months versus >3 months had higher verbal comprehension (86.6±21 versus 70.3±12; p=0.0143) and expressive language scores (92.1±12 versus 80.5±21; p=0.0601), respectively. Children with bilateral moderate to profound HL and children with unilateral or bilateral mild HL were more likely to have low verbal comprehension scores versus children with hearing (75.8±17 and 81.0±22 versus 94.8±15; p=0.001), and receive more special educational services (100% and 100% versus 42%) respectively. After adjusting for degree of HL and Vineland adaptive scores <70, entry to EI ≤3 months was associated with a 13.8 point higher verbal comprehension score (p=0.047) for children with HL. The model accounted for 26% of variance.

Conclusions: Persistent beneficial effects of early age of entry to EI on verbal comprehension scores are observed for children with congenital HL at preschool age. Children with HL continue to need comprehensive education services.