TY - JOUR
T1 - Unilateral hearing loss is associated with a negative effect on language scores in adolescents
AU - Fischer, Caroline
AU - Lieu, Judith
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding and support: The data used in this study was obtained with support from NIH grant K23 DC006638 , the American Hearing Research Foundation , NIH/NCRR Washington University-ICTS Grant # UL1 RR024992 , NIDCD T32 000022 and a McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience New Resource Proposal award. Funding was also received from NIH grant T32 DC000022 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
PY - 2014/10/1
Y1 - 2014/10/1
N2 - Objective: To determine if adolescents with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) demonstrate worse language skills than their siblings with normal hearing (NH). Design: Case-control study of 12-17-year-old adolescents with UHL (20 cases) compared with sibling controls with NH (13 controls). Methods: Scores on the oral portion of the Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS) and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) were the primary outcome measure. Wechsler's Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence (WASI) scores were also used as an outcome measure. Results: Adolescents with UHL demonstrated worse overall and expressive language scores than controls, (98 vs. 114, P= 0.001; 100 vs. 114, P= 0.006) and had significantly lower full scale (98 vs. 112, P= 0.017), verbal (101 vs. 113, P= 0.032), and performance IQ (95 vs. 107, P= 0.037). Conclusions: These findings suggest that UHL in adolescents is associated with a negative effect on standardized language scores and IQ. They also demonstrate that the developmental gap between children with UHL and children with NH does not resolve as the children progress into adolescence and may even widen as the children grow older. Therefore, these results strongly encourage implementation of early intervention for children with UHL to prevent speech-language delays. More studies in adolescents are warranted to evaluate educational outcomes.
AB - Objective: To determine if adolescents with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) demonstrate worse language skills than their siblings with normal hearing (NH). Design: Case-control study of 12-17-year-old adolescents with UHL (20 cases) compared with sibling controls with NH (13 controls). Methods: Scores on the oral portion of the Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS) and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) were the primary outcome measure. Wechsler's Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence (WASI) scores were also used as an outcome measure. Results: Adolescents with UHL demonstrated worse overall and expressive language scores than controls, (98 vs. 114, P= 0.001; 100 vs. 114, P= 0.006) and had significantly lower full scale (98 vs. 112, P= 0.017), verbal (101 vs. 113, P= 0.032), and performance IQ (95 vs. 107, P= 0.037). Conclusions: These findings suggest that UHL in adolescents is associated with a negative effect on standardized language scores and IQ. They also demonstrate that the developmental gap between children with UHL and children with NH does not resolve as the children progress into adolescence and may even widen as the children grow older. Therefore, these results strongly encourage implementation of early intervention for children with UHL to prevent speech-language delays. More studies in adolescents are warranted to evaluate educational outcomes.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Cognition
KW - Speech or language delay
KW - Unilateral hearing loss
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84908018812
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijporl.2014.07.005
DO - 10.1016/j.ijporl.2014.07.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 25081604
AN - SCOPUS:84908018812
SN - 0165-5876
VL - 78
SP - 1611
EP - 1617
JO - International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
JF - International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
IS - 10
ER -