APA:

Apuzzo, M.-r. L., & Yoshinaga-Itano, C. (1998). The Development of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children Identified Early through the High-Risk Registry. American Annals of the Deaf. 143(5), 416-24.

Description of Research Design:

“This is a retrospective descriptive population study. There may be some imbalances by group according to a specific variable. Eighty-two participants were selected from the existing CHIP database. Data on a list of variables at time of testing were used to set criteria for the selection of study participants.”

Did it Work:

There is a substantial amount of evidence to prove the importance of early identification before age 6 months in babies. The data shows the large gap between chronological age and language development in those identified after age 7 months.

Key Parts of Research:

  • Children identified and receiving intervention by the age of 2 –3 months had higher levels of receptive and expressive language / vocabulary, personal-social development, general development, situation comprehension and vowel production.
  • Findings were based upon 3 hearing loss groups
  • Mild to moderate-severe
  • Severe
  • Profound
  • Receptive vocabulary from birth to age 6 months was reported as more than doubled among children identified after age 7 months. Showing an increase in developmental age.
  • Expressive vocabulary for those identified before age 6 months was equivalent to a child functioning at age 19.5-month level.
  • Vowel identification increased for those detected before age 6 months.
  • Hearing loss appears to play the role in phonemic items rather than the age of identification.

How information might be used:

To show proof that if early detection and services are well established prior to 6 months, the d/hh child’s language development will be similar to that of their hearing peers rather than spending the duration of their schooling trying to catch up.

Resulting Insights and Questions:

  • Why is the number of gestures higher with profound than with mild to moderate losses?
  • With the early detection testing, we can change the course of future d/hh children.
  • The later the detection the more significant gap you will put between developmental delays.
  • Is deafness a side effect to most of these disabilities (e.g. Goldenhar, Treacher Collins etc)?