Language skills in hearing-impaired children.

The acquisition of language structures by 22 hearing-impaired children in regular schools were studied. The children, whose ages ranged from 5 to 18 years, had hearing losses of more than 70 dB. They were divided into two groups of 11 each on the basis of age at which deafness was recognized and nature of early training. The first group, diagnosed between the ages of 11 months and 36 months, had participated in a parent-infant guidance program for at least two years. The second group, diagnosed between 34 to 58 months of age had entered directly into a school of the deaf. Rule of morphology, early receptive and expressive language, complex syntax reading skills and communication ability were examined. No measurable difference in the linguistic skills of the two groups was concerned. All the subjects had reached a higher level of language achievement than similarly-aged subjects described in the literature. Most subjects had not acquired the more complex syntactical structures commonly mastered by hearing children. Better achievement by older subjects was not demonstrated. Each of the tests used was evaluated ae a tool for measuring the language of hearing-impaired children.La présente recherche se propose d'étudier l'acquisition de structures linguistiques auprès de 22 jeunes déficients auditifs, intégrés en école régulière. Les enfants âgés de 5 à 8 ans présentent une surdité de plus de 70 dB. Ils furent divisés en deux groupes de 11 enfants chacun dépendant de l’âgé à laquelle leur surdité fut identifiée et dépendant des mesures thérapeutiques qui furent alors prises. Appartenaient au premier groupe les enfants dont la surdité avait été identifiée entre tes âgés de 11 et 36 mois et qui avaient bénéficié d'un programme de thérapies parents-enfant pour une durée d'au moins 2 ans. […