Temperament in Toddlers With and Without Prelingual Hearing Loss
Irina Castellanos1, Derek M Houston2
1Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis.
Insights
Toddlers with prelingual hearing loss show higher surgency and lower effortful control than hearing peers. Temperament differences in early development may predict outcomes for children with hearing loss.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Audiology
- Child Development
Background:
- Temperament plays a crucial role in a child's social and emotional development.
- Understanding temperament in toddlers with prelingual hearing loss is vital for early intervention and support.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate parent-reported temperament differences in toddlers with and without prelingual hearing loss.
- To explore associations between temperament and demographic/communication factors in this population.
- To assess the sensitivity of the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) to hearing and communication status.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the parent-completed Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) for toddlers aged 18-36 months.
- Assessed three temperament dimensions: surgency, negative affectivity, and effortful control.
- Conducted comparative analyses and regression to examine group differences and influencing factors.
Main Results:
- Toddlers with prelingual hearing loss exhibited higher surgency and lower effortful control compared to hearing peers.
- Negative affectivity levels were comparable between groups.
- Chronological age and communication strategy influenced effortful control scores in toddlers with hearing loss.
Conclusions:
- This study is the first to use the ECBQ to assess temperament in toddlers with prelingual hearing loss.
- Significant temperament differences, particularly in surgency, were observed.
- Investigating toddler temperament is important for predicting functional outcomes in children with hearing loss.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study is to examine parent-reported ratings of temperament in toddlers with and without prelingual hearing loss.
Method:
The parent-completed Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) was used to assess temperament in toddlers aged 18-36 months. Three dimensions of temperament were examined: surgency, negative affectivity, and effortful control. Analyses were conducted to (a) examine differences in temperament across toddlers with and without prelingual hearing loss; (b) examine possible associations between temperament, demographic, and communication factors; and (c) determine if the ECBQ is sensitive to differences in hearing, communication, and listening skills among toddlers with prelingual hearing loss.
Results:
The parent-completed ECBQ revealed that toddlers with prelingual hearing loss differed from their hearing peers on some but not all dimensions of temperament. Specifically, children with prelingual hearing loss were rated as displaying higher levels of surgency and lower levels of effortful control but comparable levels of negative affectivity when compared to their hearing peers. Regression analyses revealed that chronological age and communication strategy predicted scores of effortful control in toddlers with prelingual hearing loss, whereas chronological age alone predicted scores of effortful control in toddlers with hearing. Finally, the ECBQ appears to contain "listening" items that skew (lower) levels of effortful control in toddlers with prelingual hearing loss, such that only the group effect of higher levels of surgency remained after removing these "listening" items. Correlations between the original and our modified ECBQ (removing the "listening" items) revealed strong associations, reflective of high construct validity.
Conclusions:
This was the first study to measure temperament in toddlers with prelingual hearing loss using the ECBQ. Our results revealed differences between children with and without prelingual hearing loss centering on the dimension of surgency. Examining differences in temperament during the toddler period of development may be particularly important and useful for predicting functional outcomes following prelingual hearing loss.
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