Variation in Auditory Experience Affects Language and Executive Function Skills in Children Who Are Hard of Hearing.
Ryan W McCreery, Elizabeth A Walker
PMID 34288630WHAT IT FOUND
Children who are hard of hearing had weaker vocabulary and some working memory and attention skills than matched hearing peers.
In this group, better vocabulary and more speech access from hearing aid use, fitting, and unaided hearing were linked to stronger executive function.
Key findings
01Compared with children with typical hearing, children who are hard of hearing had lower scores on receptive vocabulary and on several working memory and inhibition measures, but not on all executive function or nonverbal intelligence measures.
02Among children who are hard of hearing, receptive vocabulary was correlated with executive function measures, and aided audibility and auditory dosage were positively correlated with receptive vocabulary and associated with some working memory or attention scores.
03In regression models, receptive vocabulary predicted individual differences in several executive function measures, and auditory dosage was also associated with nonword repetition and parent-reported everyday working memory and attention.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The paper reports 263 children contributing data, but also lists 212 children who are hard of hearing and 86 children with typical hearing, so the exact analysed sample is unclear. The sample excluded non-English-speaking homes and children with additional developmental disabilities, and both groups had higher maternal education than the general population, so the children may have better language and executive function than many children with hearing loss. Children with cochlear implants were excluded, so the findings do not address that group. The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether auditory dosage, vocabulary, or executive function influenced one another over time. Most measures were standardized laboratory tests, although one parent-report measure assessed everyday working memory and attention. No intervention was tested, so the findings do not prove that changing hearing aid use, audibility, or language therapy will improve executive function.
Declared interests
No author conflict-of-interest statement is included in the supplied text. The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the associations as proof that improving hearing aid use or language therapy causes better executive function. The analysis is cross-sectional, so it cannot show direction or cause.