Open AccessAre We Slipping Them Through the Cracks? The Insufficiency of Norm-Referenced Assessments for Identifying Language Weaknesses in Children With Hearing Loss
Author(s) -
Krystal L. Werfel,
Michael E. Douglas
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
perspectives of the asha special interest groups
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2381-473X
DOI - 10.1044/persp2.sig9.43
Subject(s) - hearing loss , active listening , audiology , psychology , norm (philosophy) , medicine , communication , political science , law
Children with hearing loss who use listening and spoken language increasingly reach performance within or above the average range on norm-referenced assessments of language ability prior to entering school; however, they continue to perform below expectations on language-based academic skills, such as reading. The purpose of this article was to identify limitations of making service provision decisions primarily on the basis of norm-referenced assessments for children with hearing loss. We offer evidence from a group of children with hearing loss who scored within 1.5 standard deviations of the mean on a norm-referenced omnibus language measure. These children with hearing loss performed more poorly than age-matched children with normal hearing on several measures derived from a naturalistic language sample. Based on the limitations of norm-referenced assessments and the findings of this study, we propose that language sample analysis should be used as primary evidence of language weakness for children with hearing loss.