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No benefit from sign language use among children with cochlear implants
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The use of sign language for deaf children who receive cochlear implants by 3 years provides no observable benefits in the learning of spoken language before or after implantation, according to a study published in Pediatrics.
“A major question for parents and the professionals who work with [deaf children] is whether speech recognition, speech production, spoken language and reading skills are best developed by focusing exclusively on spoken language, or if early exposure to sign language provides an important foundation for learning a spoken language,” Ann E. Geers, PhD, from the Callier Center for Communication Disorders at the University of Texas at Dallas, and colleagues wrote.
To determine whether parental use of sign language before and after cochlear implants improves auditory-only speech recognition, speech intelligibility, spoken language and reading in children, the researchers conducted an analysis of data collected from a national database.
Three cohorts of children with cochlear implants were included in the study with no differences in demographic, auditory or linguistic attributes before implantation. However, there were differences in duration of early sign language exposure in the home. The researchers then compared these groups to establish a connection between progression through elementary school grades and the use of early sign language.
Speech was better recognized in children who had not learned early sign language within the first 3 years after implantation, and these children also demonstrated advantages in spoken language and reading during the later elementary grades. Age-appropriate spoken language skills were demonstrated in more than 70% of children who did not have early exposure to sign language; only 39% of children exposed to sign language for 3 years or more had the same level of spoken language skills.
A predictive relationship between speech perception and speech intelligibility was observed within middle elementary grades. Additionally, better speech intelligibility was demonstrated in children who had no sign language exposure (mean = 70%) compared with those who were exposed (mean = 51%).
“Parents in the long-term exposure group may have continued signing with their children because of their children’s lack of spoken language process, and sign language — not measured here — may have excelled,” Geers and colleagues wrote. “Measuring only spoken language outcomes may have underestimated total language abilities in spoken and signed language together. However, increasing lags in reading comprehension scores of children exposed to sign language suggest that their overall language skill was not sufficient to compensate for verbal achievement deficits.”
Disclosure: Please see the study for a full list of relevant disclosures.
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