Davies School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth.
Center for Deafness, Language, and Learning, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE.
Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2022 Apr 11;53(2):391-403. doi: 10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00074. Epub 2022 Feb 15.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of switching from in-person assessment to virtual assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic on the growth trajectories of children with hearing loss who are learning spoken language.
Sixty-eight children with typical hearing, 44 children with cochlear implants, and 47 children with hearing aids were assessed with a norm-referenced measure of receptive vocabulary, a criterion-referenced measure of phonological awareness, and a criterion-referenced measure of conceptual print knowledge at least 4 times, at 6-month intervals, between the ages of 4 and 6 years. Of those participants, 26 children with typical hearing, 13 children with cochlear implants, and 13 children with hearing aids entered virtual testing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The slopes of growth for children who entered virtual testing were compared to their own slopes prepandemic and to the growth slopes of children who completed all testing in-person, prepandemic.
Within-subject comparisons across all measures did not show a change in growth slopes prepandemic to postpandemic. For the measure of conceptual print knowledge, children who were tested during the pandemic showed slower overall growth than children who were tested prepandemic. No effects of hearing status were found across growth on any measure.
These preliminary data support the use of virtual assessment to measure growth in receptive vocabulary, phonological awareness, and conceptual print knowledge in children with hearing loss learning spoken language.
本研究旨在评估在 COVID-19 大流行期间将面对面评估转换为虚拟评估对正在学习口语的听力损失儿童的生长轨迹的影响。
68 名具有典型听力的儿童、44 名人工耳蜗植入儿童和 47 名助听器佩戴儿童在 4 至 6 岁之间，至少接受 4 次，每次间隔 6 个月，使用接受性词汇的标准参照量表、语音意识的标准参照量表和概念印刷知识的标准参照量表进行评估。其中，由于 COVID-19 大流行，26 名具有典型听力的儿童、13 名人工耳蜗植入儿童和 13 名助听器佩戴儿童进入了虚拟测试。将进入虚拟测试的儿童的生长斜率与其自身大流行前的斜率以及大流行前所有进行面对面测试的儿童的生长斜率进行比较。
在所有测量指标中，与大流行前相比，大流行期间的生长斜率没有变化。对于概念印刷知识的测量，在大流行期间接受测试的儿童的总体生长速度比大流行前接受测试的儿童慢。在任何测量指标上，听力状况都没有影响生长。
这些初步数据支持使用虚拟评估来测量正在学习口语的听力损失儿童的接受性词汇、语音意识和概念印刷知识的生长。
