Language Access is a Catalyst for Early Numerical Abilities

Recent research has found that the cumulative amount of time a child has had auditory access to language accounts for differences in early numerical abilities between oral Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) and hearing preschoolers. We replicate and extend these findings by exploring the role of language ability and salience of numerical information with a larger sample (N = 89; 43 female; majority White) of 3- 6-year-old oral DHH and hearing children. We captured number knowledge, numerical discrimination, salience of numerical information, and parent-reports of vocabulary and language experience. Oral DHH children underperformed on the numerical tasks and vocabulary, however, disparities in numerical measures disappeared when controlling for differences in language experience. The salience of numerical information was similar for both groups.