Orale Sprachentwicklung bilateral schallempfindungsgestörter Kinder: ein empirischer Längsschnitt

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the oral language development of children with permanent bilateral hearing loss without additional disabilities longitudinally (5 time points t1-t5). METHOD: The present follow-up study evaluated both receptive and expressive language developmental quotients (DQ; desired value 1.0) with standardised developmental scales and receptive and expressive vocabulary size with standardised tests (results in T-scores; m=50, SD=10). Mean follow-up duration was 38.1 (SD 4.8) months. SAMPLE: A cohort of n=18 sensorineural hearing-impaired children was recruited from the German GoTTINGER HoR-SPRACHREGISTER. Mean diagnosis age was 21.4 (SD 16.6) months and mean age of amplification with hearing aids was 21.7 (SD 16.5) months. RESULTS: The mean DQs slowly increased from t1 to t4 (DQ receptive 0.37/0.48/0.55/0.56; DQ expressive: 0.51/0.51/0.55/0.55) and remained norm deviant. The diagnosis age of hearing loss and both the developmental quotients for receptive (-0.41/-0.42/-0.53; p 90 dB who all had received a cochlear-implant up to t3. Children who were identified as hearing-impaired before the age of 18 months exhibited on average generally greater DQs. CONCLUSION: The individual best available amplification of hearing loss did not compulsively cause an age-adequate spoken language development, at least not in case of a hearing loss > 40 dB. So a newborn hearing screening must be the first step in identification, intervention and habilitation of an infant with hearing loss. Use of a cochlear implant seemed to have a great impact on the oral language development of children with a bilateral loss > 90 dB.