A Study On Language Ability,Executive Function,and Their Correlation Among Hearing-impaired Children Aged 3-5 Years

Objective Explore the characteristics of language ability and executive function(EF)in hearing-impaired children aged 3-5 years,and analyze the relationship between language ability and EF.Methods 1.This study selected 60 hearing-impaired children aged 3-5 years and 60 agematched typical developmental(TD)children,and recorded their basic information,including age,gender,age at the beginning of language training,age at the beginning of hearing compensation,and average hearing thresholds before and after hearing compensation.2.For hearing-impaired children only,the "Mandarin Children’s Clinical Language Proficiency Grading Assessment Test" was used to obtain original scores for word comprehension,word naming,sentence comprehension,sentence pattern imitation,and picture narration.The original scores were converted into standardized scale scores according to reference standards,and the language level was obtained based on the scale scores.Then explore the characteristics of language ability in hearing-impaired children.3.For two groups of children,the Forward Digit Span Test(FDST),Day-night Stroop,Dimensional Change Card Sorting(DCCS),and Behavior Rating Scale of Executive FunctionPreschool Version(BRIEF-P)were tested.Using the above scores as dependent variables,and child type and age as independent variables,a two-way analysis of variance would be conducted to explore the overall performance of EF and characteristics of working memory,inhibition control,and cognitive flexibility.4.Conduct correlation and regression analysis between the language ability of hearingimpaired children and their demographic factors and executive function,to explore the correlation between language ability and executive function,as well as the influencing factors of language ability.Results 1.Language ability characteristics of hearing-impaired children:①Original score:For word naming,hearing-impaired children aged 4 and 5 were significantly higher than those aged 3,while other language tasks were significantly higher at 5 than those aged 3.② Scale score:For sentence pattern imitation and picture narrative,children with hearing impairment aged 4 and 5 were significantly lower than those aged 3.And at the age of 3,the word naming score was significantly lower than that of picture narration,while at the age of 4,the word naming score was significantly lower than that of sentence comprehension.③Language level:For sentence comprehension,the proportion of 4-year-old hearing-impaired children who were"marginalized" was significantly higher than that of 5-year-old children,and the proportion of"reaching the standard" was significantly lower than that of 3-year-old children.For sentence pattern imitation,the proportion of "edge" at the age of 5 was significantly higher than that at the age of 3,and the proportion of "reaching the standard" was significantly lower than that at the age of 3.For picture narration,the proportion of "edge" at the age of 4 was significantly higher than that at the age of 3,the proportion of "very low" at the age of 5 was significantly higher than that at the age of 3,and the proportion of "reaching the standard" at the ages of 4 and 5 was significantly lower than that at the age of 3.There was no significant age difference in language levels for word comprehension and naming.2.Executive function characteristics of hearing-impaired children:① For FDST score,the interaction effect between child type and age was significant,with 5-year-old hearing-impaired children being significantly higher than that of 3-year-old,and both 3-year-old and 4-year-old hearing-impaired children being significantly lower than TD children of the same age.② For the FDST score,DCCS converted score,DCCS total score,and Stroop score,the main effect of children’s type was significant,which showed that hearing-impaired children were significantly lower than TD children.③ The main effect of age was not significant.3.Correlation and regression analysis of language ability of hearing-impaired children:①demography factors:the language ability of hearing-impaired children was significantly positively correlated with age,and significantly negatively correlated with the average hearing threshold before and after hearing compensation.The average hearing threshold after hearing compensation had a significantly negative predictive effect on word comprehension and sentence comprehension.② Executive function:The language ability of hearing-impaired children was significantly negatively correlated with the total score of BRIEF-P and significantly positively correlated with FDST,DCCS conversion,and Stroop scores.The total score of BRIEF-P had a significant negative predictive effect on sentence pattern imitation and picture narrative,while the FDST score had a significant positive predictive effect on the score of all language tasks.Conclusion 1.Hearing-impaired children aged 3-5 years have language deficiencies.Although their language ability improves with age,the gap between hearing-impaired children and TD children of the same age also widens.And the development of different language abilities is uneven,with significant defects in word naming.2.The behavioral performance of the EF in children with a hearing impairment aged 3-5 years is deficient,characterized by significantly lower working memory,inhibition control,and cognitive flexibility than the TD children.3.The average hearing threshold after hearing compensation and EF of hearing-impaired children aged 3-5 years significantly affect their language ability.Different components of EF have different effects on language ability,and the working memory alone had a significant positive predictive effect.