Correlation Between Language Skills and Degree of Hearing in a Group of Preschool Egyptian Children with Hearing Loss

Background: Language acquisition in hearing-impaired children is enhanced by adequate exposure to auditory stimuli achieved by early, regular hearing aid fitting and proper rehabilitation programs for optimum linguistic experience. Objective: This research aims to examine the relationship between hearing impairment (HI) (at degrees of moderate to severe) and various language skills development to understand these issues better and plan appropriate intervention programs. Patients and Methods: 25 cases (aged from 3 to less than 5) with moderate to severe degree of sensory neural hearing loss (SNHL) and average non-verbal intelligence participated in our study, recruited from Phoniatric unit outpatient clinic in Menofia University Hospital, from September 2020 to June 2021. The selected patients were subjected to language assessment protocol with the “A Proficient Preschooler Language Evaluation Tool” (APPLE). The results of the cases were compared to 25 control subjects matched for age and gender. Results: By studying the correlation between cases and control subjects (regarding the development of different language skills using APPLE tool which presented in (receptive, expressive, total language, action picture subtests, narrative skills subtests, comprehension skills test, understanding simple question, and articulation test), there was a highly significant difference. Highly significant correlations were found between hearing aid use duration and language development and between the duration of rehabilitation and language development. Conclusion: Language acquisition of hearing-impaired children depends on the HI degree, early and regular wearing of hearing aid with the suitable family enviroment, and proper intervention programs.