Open AccessComparing Word Characteristic Effects on Vocabulary of Children with Cochlear Implants
Author(s) -
Emily M. Lund
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of deaf studies and deaf education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.862
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1465-7325
pISSN - 1081-4159
DOI - 10.1093/deafed/enz015
Subject(s) - phonotactics , vocabulary , audiology , psychology , vocabulary development , cochlear implant , affect (linguistics) , word (group theory) , language development , linguistics , developmental psychology , phonology , medicine , communication , philosophy
Many studies have evaluated overall vocabulary knowledge of children who use cochlear implants, but there has been minimal focus on how word form characteristics affect this knowledge. This study evaluates the effects of neighborhood density and phonotactic probability on the expressive vocabulary of 81 children between five and seven years old (n = 27 cochlear implant users, n = 27 children matched for chronological age, and n = 27 children matched for vocabulary size). Children were asked to name pictures associated with words that have common and rare phonotactic probability and high and sparse neighborhood density. Results indicate that children with cochlear implants, similar to both groups of children with typical hearing, tend to know words with common probability/high density or with rare probability/ sparse density. Patterns of word knowledge for children with cochlear implants mirrored younger children matched for vocabulary size rather than age-matched children with typical hearing.