[Model oriented assessment of literacy performance in children with cochlear implants]

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Audiology
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Children with hearing impairments often face literacy challenges compared to their hearing peers.
• Literacy acquisition following cochlear implantation (CI) has been under-researched.
• Neurolinguistic models propose distinct lexical and sublexical strategies for written language processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the written language abilities of school-aged children with cochlear implants.
• To determine if CI users establish both lexical and sublexical reading/writing strategies or require individualized approaches.
• To analyze performance using the Salzburger Lese-Rechtschreib-Test.

Main Methods:

• Studied 8 school-aged children with cochlear implants, noting their heterogeneity.
• Assessed written language performance using the Salzburger Lese-Rechtschreib-Test.
• Conducted detailed individual performance analysis.

Main Results:

• Substantial variation in performance was observed, from rudimentary to age-equivalent abilities.
• Three children showed severe qualitative differences in written language processing.
• Individual performance profiles were detailed, with remediation suggestions and a 12-month re-test.

Conclusions:

• Thorough written language assessment is crucial for evaluating language acquisition post-CI.
• Results indicate a highly heterogeneous performance landscape among CI users.
• Model-oriented testing can identify specific processing strategies, enabling tailored remediation programs.