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Morphosyntactic correctness of written language production in adults with moderate to severe congenital hearing loss
Elke Huysmans1, Jan de Jong2, Joost M Festen3
1Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (section Ear & Hearing) and Amsterdam Public Health research institute, VU University Medical Center, PO Box 7057, 1007 MB Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Language and Hearing Center Amsterdam, VU University/VU University Medical Center, PO Box 7057, 1007 MB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Objective:
To examine whether moderate to severe congenital hearing loss (MSCHL) leads to persistent morphosyntactic problems in the written language production of adults, as it does in their spoken language production.
Design:
Samples of written language in Dutch were analysed for morphosyntactic correctness and syntactic complexity.
Study Sample:
20 adults with MSCHL and 10 adults with normal hearing (NH).
Results:
Adults with MSCHL did not differ from adults with NH in the morphosyntactic correctness and syntactic complexity of their written utterances. Within the MSCHL group, the number of morphosyntactic errors in writing was related to the degree of hearing loss in childhood.
Conclusions:
At the group level, MSCHL does not affect the morphosyntactic correctness of language produced in the written modality, in contrast to earlier observed effects on spoken language production. However, at the individual level, our data suggest that adults who acquired their language with more severe auditory limitations are more at risk of persistent problems with morphosyntax in written language production than adults with a lower degree of hearing loss in childhood.
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