Finite Verb Morphology in the Spontaneous Speech of Dutch-Speaking Children With Hearing Loss

Objective: In this study, the acquisition of Dutch finite verb morphology is investigated in children with cochlear implants (CIs) with profound hearing loss and in children with hearing aids (HAs) with moderate to severe hearing loss. Comparing these two groups of children increases our insight into how hearing experience and audibility affect the acquisition of morphosyntax. Design: Spontaneous speech samples were analyzed of 48 children with CIs and 29 children with HAs, ages 4 to 7 years. These language samples were analyzed by means of standardized language analysis involving mean length of utterance, the number of finite verbs produced, and target-like subject–verb agreement. The outcomes were interpreted relative to expectations based on the performance of typically developing peers with normal hearing. Outcomes of all measures were correlated with hearing level in the group of HA users and age at implantation in the group of CI users. Results: For both groups, the number of finite verbs that were produced in 50-utterance sample was on par with mean length of utterance and at the lower bound of the normal distribution. No significant differences were found between children with CIs and HAs on any of the measures under investigation. Yet, both groups produced more subject–verb agreement errors than are to be expected for typically developing hearing peers. No significant correlation was found between the hearing level of the children and the relevant measures of verb morphology, both with respect to the overall number of verbs that were used and the number of errors that children made. Within the group of CI users, the outcomes were significantly correlated with age at implantation. Conclusion: When producing finite verb morphology, profoundly deaf children wearing CIs perform similarly to their peers with moderate-to-severe hearing loss wearing HAs. Hearing loss negatively affects the acquisition of subject–verb agreement regardless of the hearing device (CI or HA) that the child is wearing. The results are of importance for speech-language pathologists who are working with children with a hearing impairment indicating the need to focus on subject–verb agreement in speech-language therapy.

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