Learning to read when speech sounds different : Orthographic learning in children with cochlear implants

• PurposeThe aim of this study was to investigate orthographic learning and reading skill in Swedish children with cochlear implants (CI) in comparison with normal hearing peers (NH), and to explore relationships between orthographic learning and cognitive skills in the CI group.MethodEighteen children with CI and 43 NH children, matched for age and nonverbal IQ, participated. They were 7;10 - 10;4 years of age. All children were tested on reading fluency (words and nonwords), orthographic learning, existing orthographic representations, working memory (WM), and expressive vocabulary. The children with CI were also assessed on verbal fluency, paired associate learning (visual-visual, verbal-verbal and visual-verbal) and phoneme deletion. Group differences were analyzed with Mann-Whitney U tests. Relationships between skills were analyzed in partial correlations with age controlled.ResultsThe children with CI performed below the level of hearing peers on the measures of WM, and expressive vocabulary. They also performed below age-norms on the phoneme deletion task.On the other hand, the groups did not differ significantly on reading fluency, existing orthographic representations or orthographic learning. The group difference on orthographic learning approached significance (p=.07). In the CI group, orthographic learning was strongly correlated with reading fluency (words and nonwords respectively), visual-verbal and verbal-verbal paired associate learning, and verbal fluency.ConclusionsDespite having poorer language skills and lower WM capacity, children with CI may successfully learn new orthographic representations and develop fluent reading. In line with the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1999), orthographic learning was strongly related to phonological decoding (nonword reading fluency) also in children with CI. In addition, paired associate learning, verbal fluency, and WM capacity were related to their orthographic learning skill.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

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Engineering Psychology

Teknisk psykologi

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