1. Narrative competence in Italian children with cochlear implants: a comparison with children matched by chronological or hearing age
- Author
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Laura Zampini, Paola Zanchi, Roberta Berici, Zanchi, P, Zampini, L, and Berici, R
- Subjects
hearing age ,Linguistics and Language ,medicine.medical_specialty ,medicine.medical_treatment ,microstructure ,Audiology ,Deafness ,Language Development ,050105 experimental psychology ,Language and Linguistics ,030507 speech-language pathology & audiology ,03 medical and health sciences ,Speech and Hearing ,Hearing ,Cochlear implant ,macrostructure ,medicine ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Narrative ,Child ,Competence (human resources) ,narrative competence ,05 social sciences ,Cochlear Implantation ,Cochlear Implants ,Italy ,0305 other medical science ,Psychology ,story generation task - Abstract
The present study aimed to analyse the narrative competence of a group of Italian children with a bilateral cochlear implant (CI) implanted before 30months of age. Participants were ten children with CI (aged from 42 to 83months) and two control groups of typically hearing children one-to-one paired by sex, non-verbal reasoning, and chronological or hearing age. A story generation task, specifically developed to assess narrative skills in children (i.e., the Narrative Competence Task) was used to evaluate both macrostructural and microstructural features of the children’s narratives. Results showed that children with CI presented only one significant difference in the macrostructural aspects of narratives compared to typically hearing children matched by hearing age, specifically in the higher number of events told. In addition, concerning microstructural features, the only statistically significant difference was a lower lexical variety in the narratives produced by children with CI than in those produced by typically hearing children matched by chronological age. Both macrostructural and microstructural indices appeared to be related to the hearing age of children with CI. Early CI appeared to play a crucial role in the acquisition of a complex area of language development, as narrative competence.
- Published
- 2020