Macaulay Catrin E, Ford Ruth M
Department of Public Health and Policy Studies, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA21 8PP, Wales, UK.
J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2013 Oct;18(4):545-62. doi: 10.1093/deafed/ent019. Epub 2013 Apr 24.
We evaluated the cognitive development of 48 profoundly deaf children from hearing families (born 1994-2002, mean age M = 8.0 years at time of test, none of whom had received early auditory-verbal therapy) as a function of family socioeconomic status and number of siblings. Overall, the deaf children matched a younger group of 47 hearing controls (M = 4.6 years) on verbal ability, theory of mind, and cognitive inhibition. Partial correlations (controlling for age) revealed positive relations in the hearing group between maternal education and inhibition, between number of younger siblings and references to emotions, and between number of close-in-age siblings and references to desires and false beliefs. In the deaf group, there were positive relations between household income and memory span, between maternal education and references to false beliefs, and between number of younger siblings and nonverbal ability. In contrast, deaf children with a greater number of older siblings aged ≤12 years showed inferior memory span, inhibition, belief understanding, picture-sequencing accuracy, and mental-state language, suggesting that they failed to compete successfully with older siblings for their parents' attention and material resources. We consider the implications of the findings for understanding birth-order effects on deaf and language-impaired children.
我们评估了48名来自听力正常家庭的重度聋儿（出生于1994年至2002年，测试时平均年龄M = 8.0岁，均未接受过早期听觉言语治疗）的认知发展，该评估将其作为家庭社会经济地位和兄弟姐妹数量的函数。总体而言，这些聋儿在语言能力、心理理论和认知抑制方面与一组年龄较小的47名听力正常儿童对照组（M = 4.6岁）相当。偏相关分析（控制年龄因素）显示，在听力正常儿童组中，母亲教育程度与抑制能力之间、弟弟妹妹数量与情绪提及之间、年龄相近的兄弟姐妹数量与欲望及错误信念提及之间存在正相关关系。在聋儿组中，家庭收入与记忆广度之间、母亲教育程度与错误信念提及之间、弟弟妹妹数量与非语言能力之间存在正相关关系。相比之下，有较多12岁及以下哥哥姐姐的聋儿在记忆广度、抑制能力、信念理解、图片排序准确性和心理状态语言方面表现较差，这表明他们未能成功地与哥哥姐姐竞争父母的关注和物质资源。我们考虑了这些研究结果对于理解出生顺序对聋儿和语言障碍儿童的影响的意义。
