Assessment of Language Skills in Young Children with Profound Hearing Loss under Two Years of Age

This article presents an initial evaluation of a technique known as the Diary of Early Language (Di-EL), designed to obtain data about early lexical development in young children with profound hearing loss using cochlear implants, hearing aids, or both. The validity of the Di-EL, a parent report technique, was examined through comparisons with other measures of language development. Lexical data reported by parents using the Di-EL was found to agree with that reported by the same parents for the same children using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI), although some differences in the lexical items were noted. Rate of lexical acquisition on the Di-EL was found to correlate highly with that measured by the CDI and with expressive language skills as measured by the Rossetti Infant Toddler Language Scale, suggesting that the Di-EL is a valid measure of early lexical progress. These results are discussed with reference to other diary studies, along with research and clinical applications of the Di-EL.