Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 1 of 1
-
ItemComplex syntax use in children with hearing loss( 2023-07)Children with hearing loss (CHL) present with a wide variety of language and literacy profiles unique to this population. Even with advancements in early identification, technology, and early intervention, many CHL continue to show language difficulties when compared to their typically hearing peers. These difficulties are across multiple aspects of language including phonology, vocabulary, and morphosyntax. One area that has been explored minimally is complex syntax. Complex syntax competence is important for language, reading comprehension, writing proficiency, and social relationships. Complex syntax is often mistakenly assumed to be a later developing skill that follows mastery of grammatical morphology and simple sentence structure. However, complex syntax is simultaneously acquired, with grammatical morphology and basic clausal structure (Barako Arndt & Schuele, 2013) emerging at a relatively young age. Complex syntax is shown to be a continuing area of challenge for CHL. The purpose of this study was to describe and profile CHL’s complex syntax use to better understand the vulnerabilities and resiliency in language for these children. This PhD study examined complex syntax use by 8- to 10-year-old CHL as compared to their typically hearing peers. The two groups undertook a range of language and cognitive measures, including elicited language samples. Frequency, variety, and accuracy of complex syntactic productions were compared across the groups. Results indicate that while CHL produce a similar range of complex syntax types, they exhibit less frequent use, less variety, and reduced accuracy across and within complex syntax types as compared to their typically hearing peers. CHL demonstrate a range of error types that suggest challenges across multiple language domains. Greater processing demands are suggested to cause breakdowns across multiple levels of sentence production, with CHL demonstrating differences in a range of cognitive processes, particularly phonological memory. The differences, although somewhat reduced as compared to previous research, and possibly masked by the small sample size, warrant further investigation. This research contributes valuable information for clinicians, educational professionals, and researchers around strengths and challenges in CHL’s complex syntax use. The novel assessment protocol has promise as a comprehensive battery that can provide a deeper analysis of complex syntax in individual CHL. This research also focused attention on the importance of considering the interactions between language domains and the interrelationships between language and cognitive capacities. Further research should continue to investigate this important area of language.