Journal article

Early Language Development in Children with Profound Hearing Loss Fitted with a Device at a Young Age: Part I-The Time Period Taken to Acquire First Words and First Word Combinations

Pauline Nott, Robert Cowan, P Margaret Brown, Gillian Wigglesworth

EAR AND HEARING | LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS | Published : 2009

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Increasing numbers of infants and young children are now presenting to implantation centers and early intervention programs as the impact of universal newborn hearing screening programs is felt worldwide. Although results of a number of studies have highlighted the benefit of early identification and early fitting of hearing devices, there is relatively little research on the impact of early fitting of these devices on first language milestones. The aim of this study was to investigate the early spoken language milestones of young children with hearing loss (HL) from two perspectives: first, the acquisition of the first lexicon (i.e., the first 100 words) and second, the emergence..

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Funding Acknowledgements

[ "This work was supported by the Commonwealth of Australia through the establishment of The HEARing Co-operative Research Centre (The HEARing CRC) and its predecessors.", "The principal author, Pauline Nott, is currently employed as a research fellow with The HEARing CRC and undertook this research as part of her doctoral studies completed in 2007.", "The authors thank the staff, parents, and children who participated in this research at several early intervention programs throughout Australia including Taralye-The Oral Language Center for Deaf Children; the University of Melbourne; the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital Cochlear Implant Clinic; Early Education for Hearing Impaired Children; the Hear and Say Centre; and the Speech and Hearing Centre. This research was conducted under ethical guidelines approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital." ]