Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39937686›Full record

ArticleLanguage, speech, and hearing services in schools2025

Is Knowing Words Enough? Assessing Vocabulary in Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

Leo Evans, Emily A Lund, Krystal L Werfel

Abstract read
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Article in Language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Leo EvansBoys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE.ORCID 0000-0003-2936-4863
Emily A LundTexas Christian University, Fort Worth.ORCID 0000-0003-4992-3554
Krystal L WerfelBoys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE.ORCID 0000-0002-2599-4609

Funding

RESEARCH IN HUMAN COMMUNICATION AND ITS DISORDERST32DC000013 · NIDCD · FATHER FLANAGAN'S BOYS'HOME · PI Ryan W. McCreery · 1989 to 2026
$4.5M
Early Language and Literacy Acquisition in Children with Hearing LossR01DC017173 · NIDCD · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AT COLUMBIA · PI LUND, EMILY ANN, WERFEL, KRYSTAL L. · 2018 to 2023
$3.7M
Early Language and Literacy Acquisition in Children with Hearing LossR03DC014535 · NIDCD · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AT COLUMBIA · PI WERFEL, KRYSTAL L. · 2015 to 2017
$440k
NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC017173NIDCD NIH HHS R03 DC014535NIDCD NIH HHS T32 DC000013
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeVocabulary skills in children are typically measured with norm-referenced assessments of receptive and expressive vocabulary. Language sample analysis is an alternative method of examining vocabulary actually produced in communicative events and may be better suited to exposing subtle vocabulary weaknesses. Here, we examine the relationship between norm-referenced vocabulary testing and language sample analysis in preschool children, both children with typical hearing (CTH) and children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH).

methodExpressive and receptive vocabulary and spontaneous language samples were collected. Language samples were analyzed for complexity (mean length of utterance in words [MLUw]) and variability (number of different noun and verb types produced).

resultsCTH had significantly higher scores on both expressive and receptive norm-referenced tests and produced sentences with greater syntactic complexity and semantic variability. Relationships between expressive test scores and MLUw were seen in both groups; the number of noun/verb types produced was related for children who are DHH only. Receptive vocabulary was not related to spontaneous spoken language for CTH. Receptive vocabulary was significantly related to MLUw and noun/verb types for children who are DHH. However, when the DHH group was subdivided into performance above and performance below the 50th percentile, relationships held only for the group with below-average performance.

conclusionsResults suggest that single-word vocabulary, norm-referenced measures indicating performance above the 50th percentile may not be sufficient to capture nuanced difficulties with vocabulary in children who are DHH. For children who are DHH, performance in the "range of normal" on a norm-referenced test may not capture ways in which their language performance differs from that of peers with typical hearing.

Indexed as

Child LanguageDeafnessPersons with Hearing DisabilitiesVocabularyChildChild, PreschoolFemaleHumansLanguage TestsMale

Identifiers

PMID39937686
PMCPMC12002391

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.