Spoken Sentence Complexity and Grammar Use in Children with CIs.
Michaela Socher, Elisabeth Ingo
PMID 37002837WHAT IT FOUND
When children with cochlear implants and children with typical hearing have similar scores on standard grammar and vocabulary tests, their spoken sentences look the same.
They use similar sentence lengths, complexity, and error types.
Key findings
01There were no significant differences between the groups in the ratio of grammatically correct or incorrect sentences.
02The groups did not differ significantly in sentence complexity (simple, conjoint, or complex) or sentence length (Mean Length of Utterance).
03Most errors in both groups were global errors that hinder communication, and there was no significant difference in the ratio of local versus global errors between the groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was very small (12 per group). The children with cochlear implants all had bilateral implants and were implanted early; results may not apply to children with unilateral implants or later implantation. The study only analyzed spoken language from a specific test task. It did not assess real-life communication, and many children in the study used sign language alongside speech. The children were aged 5-8, an age where most children use simple sentences, which may have limited the range of complexity observed.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The research was funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Program, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, and the Swedish Association of Hard of Hearing People.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that children with cochlear implants generally have comparable language skills to hearing peers. This study only found similarities in children who were already matched for similar scores on standard tests. It does not show that implantation alone leads to typical language development.