Crowe,
K. & McLeod, S. (in press, December, 2012). A systematic review of
cross-linguistic and multilingual speech and language outcomes for children
with hearing loss. International Journal
of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to systematically
review factors affecting the language, speech intelligibility, speech
production, and lexical tone development of children with hearing loss who use
spoken languages other than English. Relevant studies of children with hearing
loss published between 2000 and 2011 were reviewed with reference to a)
methodologies used, b) children’s outcomes, c) factors affecting children’s
outcomes, and d) publication quality. The review included 117 studies describing
20 languages. Monolingual children were described in 109 and multilingual children
were described in eight. Performance outcomes were frequently associated
with earlier age of hearing loss diagnosis, intervention, amplification, and less
severe hearing loss – a finding similar to studies of English-speaking children.
Studies frequently did not report or include information about
participant characteristics, blinding of researchers, and reliability. Cross-linguistic
comparison of children’s outcomes across studies was not possible due to
differences in the outcomes assessed, assessment and analysis methods, and
participant characteristics. There is a need for cross-linguistic comparisons of
the speech and language outcomes of children with hearing loss but there is little
scope for this using existing published research. Few studies described the
outcomes of multilingual children with hearing loss.
