2022 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Virtual Conference
March 13 - 15, 2022
2/28/2017 | 4:15 PM - 4:45 PM | Impact of Early Sign Language Exposure on Benefits Realized from Cochlear Implantation | Hanover C
Impact of Early Sign Language Exposure on Benefits Realized from Cochlear Implantation
Background: The two most common educational options currently available for deaf children in North America provide English either with or without the addition of sign. We address whether parents’ use of sign language before and following cochlear implantation positively influences speech perception, speech intelligibility, language and reading outcomes in elementary grades.
Methods: Ninety-seven children from a nationwide database who received a cochlear implant (CI) by 38 months of age and differed in the duration of early sign exposure provided in their homes (i.e., none, short-term, long-term) were compared in their progress through elementary grades. The groups did not differ in demographic, auditory or linguistic characteristics prior to implantation.
Results: Children without early sign exposure achieved higher auditory speech reception scores over the first 3 years post implant and exhibited a significant advantage in spoken language and reading at the end of primary grades over children exposed to sign. Over 70% of children without sign exposure achieved age-appropriate language compared to 39% of those with 3 or more years of post-implant sign exposure. Early speech reception scores predicted speech intelligibility in mid-elementary grades. Children without sign produced speech that was significantly more intelligible (mean = 70%) than long-term sign users (mean = 50%).
Conclusions: This study provides the most compelling support yet available in the CI literature for the benefits of listening and spoken language input for promoting verbal development in children implanted by 3 years of age. Contrary to earlier published assertions, there was no advantage to parents’ use of sign language with their deaf child either before or after CI.
- Participants will recognize the range of early sign language input experienced by children implanted by age 3.
- Participants will observe the relation between early speech recognition and later speech intelligibility.
- Participants will compare spoken language and reading outcomes for different durations of early sign language input.
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Presenters/Authors
Ann Geers
(), University of Texas at Dallas, ageers@utdallas.edu;
Ann Geers, Ph.D is a developmental psychologist and research professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. She was formerly Director of Clinical Services and Head of the Center for Applied Research in Childhood Deafness at Central Institute for the Deaf and Professor at Washington University in St. Louis Missouri. Her work has been presented both nationally and internationally and appears in more than 100 published articles and book chapters, documenting the speech, language, cognitive, social and academic development of deaf children from infancy through adolescence. She has designed tests specifically for children with hearing loss, including measures of speech perception, speech production, language and intelligence. Current work focuses on early predictors of literacy in children who receive a cochlear implant early in life.
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Andrea Warner-Czyz
(), The University of Texas at Dallas, warnerczyz@utdallas.edu;
Andrea Warner-Czyz, an associate professor at The University of Texas at Dallas, focuses her research on the identification of risk and protective factors that influence communication and quality of life in children and adolescents with cochlear implants. Her current work continues to explore the intersection among social communication, speech perception, and speech and language skills to understand components that contribute to peer relationships and quality of life in pediatric cochlear implant users.
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Christine Mitchell
(), Johns Hopkins University, Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, , ccarson4@jhmi.edu;
Christine Mitchell, Sc.M., is a Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology. She earned her Master of Science degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health in Genetic Epidemiology, with coursework in epidemiological methods and biostatistics. She currently serves as the Co-Principal Investigator and the Project Manager for the Childhood Development after Cochlear Implantation (CDaCI) Study, and prior to that position, she worked for several years in the Data Coordinating Center for a multi-center brain tumor clinical trial research consortium.
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Laurie Eisenberg
(), University of Southern California, Laurie.Eisenberg@med.usc.edu>;
Laurie S. Eisenberg, Ph.D., is Professor of Research Otolaryngology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. She conducts research in pediatric hearing loss, speech perception, and auditory sensory devices. Early in her career, she worked as an audiologist on the first pediatric cochlear implant (CI) and auditory brainstem implant (ABI) trials. These experiences formed the foundation for all future endeavors as a clinical scientist. Dr. Eisenberg’s research is supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Nae Yuh Wang
(), Johns Hopkins University, Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, , naeyuh@jhmi.edu;
Dr. Nae-Yuh Wang is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. He earned his PhD in Biostatistics from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and joined the Faculty of Medicine upon graduation. He is a core faculty member of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research as well as the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, and holds joint appointments in Biostatistics and Epidemiology. Dr. Wang has published more than one hundred and twenty peer-reviewed research articles, of which a significant portion focused on longitudinal outcomes after pediatric cochlear implantation. He is the Principal Investigator of the Data Coordinating Center for the Childhood Development after Cochlear Implantation Study.
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