Reading Comprehension

2020 ◽  
pp. 170-184
Author(s):  
Susan Sullivan ◽  
Jane Oakhill ◽  
Barbara Arfè ◽  
Nadina Gómez-Merino
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Orthographic Knowledge ◽  
Digital Hearing Aids ◽  
Reading Success ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss ◽  
Universal Hearing Screening ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Hearing Compensation

Much has been written about the components that contribute to reading success, such as vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, syntax, and inference and integration skills. But much less is known about how these skills contribute to reading comprehension in learners who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). With the spread of universal hearing screening of newborns, and the new generation of technologies in hearing compensation (i.e., digital hearing aids and cochlear implants [CIs]), the prospects for children with hearing loss with regard to successful reading comprehension should be substantially improved. However, despite these developments, reading and writing often remain a challenge for DHH children. The chapter begins with a summary of the skills required for successful comprehension in typically hearing readers, and then considers what we know about reading comprehension in DHH children. It concludes with a discussion of where researchers should be focusing their future investigations in order to serve educators and learners most effectively.

scholarly journals The Devil in the Details Can Be Hard to Spot: Malapropisms and Children With Hearing Loss

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Joanna H. Lowenstein ◽  
Susan Nittrouer
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Speech Signal ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Academic Competence ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss

Purpose Better auditory prostheses and earlier interventions have led to remarkable improvements in spoken language abilities for children with hearing loss (HL), but these children often still struggle academically. This study tested a hypothesis for why this may be, proposing that the language of school becomes increasingly disconnected from everyday discourse, requiring greater reliance on bottom-up phonological structure, and children with HL have difficulty recovering that structure from the speech signal. Participants One hundred nineteen fourth graders participated: 48 with normal hearing (NH), 19 with moderate losses who used hearing aids (HAs), and 52 with severe-to-profound losses who used cochlear implants (CIs). Method Three analyses were conducted. #1: Sentences with malapropisms were created, and children's abilities to recognize them were assessed. #2: Factors contributing to those abilities were evaluated, including phonological awareness, phonological processing, vocabulary, verbal working memory, and oral narratives. #3: Teachers' ratings of students' academic competence were obtained, and factors accounting for those ratings were evaluated, including the five listed above, along with word reading and reading comprehension. Results #1: Children with HAs and CIs performed more poorly on malapropism recognition than children with NH, but similarly to each other. #2: All children with HL demonstrated large phonological deficits, but they were especially large for children with CIs. Phonological awareness explained the most variance in malapropism recognition for children with CIs. Vocabulary knowledge explained malapropism recognition for children with NH or HAs, but other factors also contributed. #3: Teachers rated academic competence for children with CIs more poorly than for children with NH or HAs, and variance in those ratings for children with CIs were primarily explained by malapropism scores. Conclusion Children with HL have difficulty recognizing acoustic–phonetic detail in the speech signal, and that constrains their abilities to follow conversations in academic settings, especially if HL is severe enough to require CIs. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13133018

Moving to Mainstream Preschool

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-49
Author(s):  
Becky Clem
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Sound Field ◽  
Neural Pathways ◽  
Clear Speech ◽  
Digital Hearing Aids ◽  
Conversational Skills ◽  
The Face ◽  
Increased Sensitivity ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss

Children with hearing loss have a world of opportunities available to them because of marvelous advances in hearing technology, including super-powered digital hearing aids, cochlear implants, wireless FM systems, infrared classroom technology for sound field, and the bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA). These advances, along with the ability to identify children with hearing loss soon after birth and fit them quickly with hearing technology, have changed the face of intervention and education. It is important for clinicians to start listening and spoken language (LSL) intervention very early, because babies' brains' neural pathways have increased sensitivity to sound before age 3 years. When children with hearing loss learn to speak through listening, they may stay on a normal path to speech and language development (Cole & Flexer, 2007). Now, children with hearing loss who learn to listen and speak typically develop regional accents, clear speech production, the ability to grasp idioms and jokes, and competent conversational skills. The purpose of this article is to describe the processes that are typical as a child with hearing loss transitions from services provided by professionals at an outpatient cochlear implant center to services provided in school settings.

scholarly journals Vocabulary Development and the Shape Bias in Children With Hearing Loss

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Lynn K. Perry ◽  
Amy L. Meltzer ◽  
Sarah C. Kucker
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Language Delays ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Learning Biases ◽  
Shape Bias ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss

Purpose Although children with hearing loss (HL) can benefit from cochlear implants (CIs) and hearing aids (HAs), they often show language delays. Moreover, little is known about the mechanisms by which children with HL learn words. One mechanism by which typically hearing (TH) children learn words is by acquiring word learning biases such as the “shape bias,” that is, generalizing the names of novel solid objects by similarity in shape. In TH children, the shape bias emerges out of regularities in the early vocabulary and, once acquired, has consequences for subsequent vocabulary development. Method Here, we ask whether children with HL exhibit similar word learning biases as TH children. In the current study, nineteen 2- to 3.5-year-old children with HL generalized the names of novel objects by similarity in shape or material. We compared their performance to that of 20 TH children matched on age and 20 TH children matched on vocabulary size. Results Children with HL were significantly less likely than age-matched TH children and vocabulary-matched TH children to generalize novel names to objects of the same shape. However, there was also an interaction such that vocabulary has a stronger effect on novel noun generalization for those with HL than for those who are TH. Exploratory analyses of children with HL reveal similar novel noun generalization and vocabulary sizes in children who use CIs and those who use HAs, regardless of hearing age or degree of HL. Conclusion Together, the results suggest that, although vocabulary knowledge drives development of the shape bias in general for all children, it may be especially important for children with HL, who are at risk for language delays.

The Effect of Vocabulary Intervention on Text Comprehension: Who Benefits?

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawna Duff
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Classroom Instruction ◽  
Vocabulary Instruction ◽  
Clinical Intervention ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Vocabulary Intervention ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Difference

Purpose Vocabulary intervention can improve comprehension of texts containing taught words, but it is unclear if all middle school readers get this benefit. This study tests 2 hypotheses about variables that predict response to vocabulary treatment on text comprehension: gains in vocabulary knowledge due to treatment and pretreatment reading comprehension scores. Method Students in Grade 6 ( N = 23) completed a 5-session intervention based on robust vocabulary instruction (RVI). Knowledge of the semantics of taught words was measured pre- and posttreatment. Participants then read 2 matched texts, 1 containing taught words (treated) and 1 not (untreated). Treated texts and taught word lists were counterbalanced across participants. The difference between text comprehension scores in treated and untreated conditions was taken as a measure of the effect of RVI on text comprehension. Results RVI resulted in significant gains in knowledge of taught words ( d RM = 2.26) and text comprehension ( d RM = 0.31). The extent of gains in vocabulary knowledge after vocabulary treatment did not predict the effect of RVI on comprehension of texts. However, untreated reading comprehension scores moderated the effect of the vocabulary treatment on text comprehension: Lower reading comprehension was associated with greater gains in text comprehension. Readers with comprehension scores below the mean experienced large gains in comprehension, but those with average/above average reading comprehension scores did not. Conclusion Vocabulary instruction had a larger effect on text comprehension for readers in Grade 6 who had lower untreated reading comprehension scores. In contrast, the amount that children learned about taught vocabulary did not predict the effect of vocabulary instruction on text comprehension. This has implications for the identification of 6th-grade students who would benefit from classroom instruction or clinical intervention targeting vocabulary knowledge.

FM Verification for the 21 st Century

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leisha Eiten ◽  
Dawna Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Current Technology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss

Background: For children with hearing loss, the benefits of FM systems in overcoming deleterious effects of noise, distance, and reverberation have led to recommendations for use beyond classroom settings. It is important that audiologists who recommend and fit these devices understand the rationale and procedures underlying fitting and verification. Objectives: This article reviews previousguidelines for FM verification, addresses technological advances, and introduces verification procedures appropriate for current FM and hearing-aid technology. Methods: Previous guidelines for verification of FM systems are reviewed. Those recommendations that are appropriate for current technology are addressed, as are procedures that are no longer adequate for hearing aids and FM systems utilizing more complex processing than in the past. Technological advances are discussed, and an updated approach to FM verification is proposed. Conclusions: Approaches to verification andfitting of FM systems must keep pace with advances in hearing-aid and FM technology. The transparency approach addressed in this paper is recommended for verification of FM systems coupled to hearing aids.

What Do We Want Them To Be When They Grow Up?

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
Lyn Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Profound Hearing Loss ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss ◽  
Learning To Listen

Abstract Learning to listen and speak are well-established preludes for reading, writing, and succeeding in mainstream educational settings. Intangibles beyond the ubiquitous test scores that typically serve as markers for progress in children with hearing loss are embedded in descriptions of the educational and social development of four young women. All were diagnosed with severe-to-profound or profound hearing loss as toddlers, and all were fitted with hearing aids and given listening and spoken language therapy. Compiling stories across the life span provides insights into what we can be doing in the lives of young children with hearing loss.

Performance Improvement of Digital Hearing Aid Systems

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Isiaka Ajewale Alimi
Keyword(s):  
Noise Reduction ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Digital Signal Processor ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Spectral Subtraction ◽  
Residual Spectrum ◽  
Digital Hearing Aids ◽  
Digital Hearing Aid

Digital hearing aids addresses the issues of noise and speech intelligibility that is associated with the analogue types. One of the main functions of the digital signal processor (DSP) of digital hearing aid systems is noise reduction which can be achieved by speech enhancement algorithms which in turn improve system performance and flexibility. However, studies have shown that the quality of experience (QoE) with some of the current hearing aids is not up to expectation in a noisy environment due to interfering sound, background noise and reverberation. It is also suggested that noise reduction features of the DSP can be further improved accordingly. Recently, we proposed an adaptive spectral subtraction algorithm to enhance the performance of communication systems and address the issue of associated musical noise generated by the conventional spectral subtraction algorithm. The effectiveness of the algorithm has been confirmed by different objective and subjective evaluations. In this study, an adaptive spectral subtraction algorithm is implemented using the noise-estimation algorithm for highly non-stationary noisy environments instead of the voice activity detection (VAD) employed in our previous work due to its effectiveness. Also, signal to residual spectrum ratio (SR) is implemented in order to control the amplification distortion for speech intelligibility improvement. The results show that the proposed scheme gives comparatively better performance and can be easily employed in digital hearing aid system for improving speech quality and intelligibility.

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