Cupples Linda, Ching Teresa Y C, Hou Sanna
Department of Linguistics, Centre for Language Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
NextSense Institute, NextSense, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Front Pediatr. 2024 Mar 6;12:1282952. doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1282952. eCollection 2024.
Children with early-identified unilateral hearing loss (UHL) might be at risk for delays in early speech and language, functional communication, psychosocial skills, and quality of life (QOL). However, a paucity of relevant research prohibits strong conclusions. This study aimed to provide new evidence relevant to this issue.
Participants were 34 children, ages 9;0 to 12;7 (years;months), who were identified with UHL via newborn hearing screening. Nineteen children had been fitted with hearing devices, whereas 15 had not. Assessments included measures of speech perception and intelligibility; language and cognition; functional communication; psychosocial abilities; and QOL.
As a group, the children scored significantly below the normative mean and more than one standard deviation below the typical range on speech perception in spatially separated noise, and significantly below the normative mean on written passage comprehension. Outcomes in other aspects appear typical. There was however considerable variation in the children's degree of hearing loss over time, raising the possibility that this pattern of results might change as children get older. The current study also revealed that participants with higher levels of nonverbal ability demonstrated better general language skills and better ability to comprehend written passages. By contrast, neither perception of speech in collocated noise nor fitting with a hearing device accounted for unique variance in outcome measures. Future research should, however, evaluate the fitting of hearing devices using random assignment of participants to groups in order to avoid any confounding influence of degree of hearing loss or children's past/current level of progress.
早期确诊为单侧听力损失（UHL）的儿童可能面临早期言语和语言发育迟缓、功能性沟通障碍、心理社会技能问题以及生活质量（QOL）下降的风险。然而，相关研究的匮乏使得难以得出确凿结论。本研究旨在为这一问题提供新的证据。
研究对象为34名年龄在9岁0个月至12岁7个月之间的儿童，他们通过新生儿听力筛查被确诊为单侧听力损失。其中19名儿童已佩戴听力设备，15名儿童未佩戴。评估内容包括言语感知和清晰度、语言与认知、功能性沟通、心理社会能力以及生活质量等方面的测量。
总体而言，这些儿童在空间分离噪声环境下的言语感知得分显著低于常模均值，且比典型范围低一个标准差以上，在书面段落理解方面也显著低于常模均值。其他方面的结果看似正常。然而，随着时间推移，儿童的听力损失程度存在相当大的差异，这增加了随着儿童年龄增长这种结果模式可能发生变化的可能性。本研究还表明，非言语能力水平较高的参与者表现出更好的一般语言技能和书面段落理解能力。相比之下，在同处噪声环境下的言语感知以及佩戴听力设备这两个因素均未在结果测量中解释独特的方差。不过，未来研究应通过将参与者随机分组来评估听力设备的适配情况，以避免听力损失程度或儿童过去/当前进展水平的任何混杂影响。
