Comparing the pragmatic skills of school-aged children with a hearing impairment to those of their typically developing peers

Abstract

Research addressing the pragmatic skills of Maltese children with a hearing impairment is lacking. This study’s aim was to examine and describe how a range of pragmatic abilities in a group of school-aged children with a hearing impairment compare to those of their typicallydeveloping age-matched peers. A total of 20 children, 10 with a hearing impairment and 10 typically developing controls, between the ages of 5;0 and 9;11 years, participated in this study. Their pragmatic abilities were assessed through a referential communication task and through structured interviews with their teachers/learning support assistants. The main targeted areas included; the ability to request clarifications and the strategies used, conversational turn-taking abilities, and breakdowns in communication. All data were collected at the children’s respective schools. Following transcription and analysis, the results for the two groups were compared. Results showed that children with a hearing impairment generally used alternative strategies for seeking clarifications and had relatively less-developed conversational turn-taking abilities. Conversations with these children were also characterized by a larger number of breakdowns when compared to the typically developing group. Intragroup variations among the children with a hearing impairment were also observed, particularly between those with poor speech/language abilities and those with more functional language. This suggests that variables among individuals with a hearing impairment impact the extent of acquisition and development of pragmatic abilities.