Developmental Outcomes in Early-Identified Children Who Are Hard of Hearing at 2 to 3 Years of Age.
Carren J Stika, Laurie S Eisenberg, Alice S Carter and 4 others
PMID 33625056WHAT IT FOUND
Hard-of-hearing toddlers with hearing aids scored lower than hearing peers in language and adaptive behavior, but not in emotional or behavioral problems.
Their social competence lagged specifically in areas requiring conversation, not basic empathy.
Key findings
01Children who are hard of hearing scored significantly lower than children with normal hearing on all measures of language skills, even though group means were within the average range.
02There were no significant differences between the groups in emotional or behavioral problems, but children who are hard of hearing were rated as less socially competent, particularly in empathy and functional communication.
03Parenting stress was the only significant predictor of behavior problems in the hard-of-hearing group; hearing loss severity and maternal self-efficacy did not predict these outcomes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if parenting stress causes child behavior problems or if child behavior problems cause parenting stress. The sample size was small (39 in the hearing loss group), which reduces statistical power. The study excluded children with additional disabilities or low birth weight, so results may not apply to the broader population of children with hearing loss. Psychosocial and adaptive outcomes relied on parent reports, which may introduce bias if stressed parents rate their children's behavior more negatively.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that hearing loss severity predicts behavioral or adaptive outcomes. In this study, severity was not significantly associated with psychosocial functioning or adaptive behavior; instead, parenting stress and language skills were the stronger predictors.