Artificial Grammar Learning in Children Who Are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing

Artificial Grammar Learning in Children Who Are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing

The goal of this basic experimental study involving humans (BESH) clinical trial is to examine factors that facilitate grammar learning in young school-age children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and who primarily use spoken language. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1) Do visual speech cues or nonlinguistic visual cues better support grammar learning? 2) Do short or long stimuli better support grammar learning? Participants will complete an artificial grammar learning task to see which condition (visual speech cues vs. nonlinguistic cues or short vs. long stimuli) results in better grammar learning.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Ages 5 years, 0 months through 7 years, 11 months
• Bilateral hearing loss
• Uses bilateral hearing devices (cochlear implants, bilateral hearing aids, or a cochlear implant and a hearing aid)
• Has used first hearing device for at least one year
• No history of developmental delay that is unrelated to hearing loss
• Normal non-verbal IQ
• Normal or corrected-to-normal vision
• Normal color vision
• Primarily spoken English users
• Access to remote video call technology

Exclusion Criteria:

• Younger than 5 years, 0 months
• 8 years, 0 months or older
• Normal hearing in one or both ears
• Uses one or no hearing device (e.g., cochlear implant, hearing aid)
• Has not used a hearing device for at least one year
• History of developmental delay that is unrelated to hearing loss
• Nonverbal IQ below normal limits
• Visual impairment that cannot be corrected by glasses or contacts
• Color vision impairment
• Primarily sign language user
• If spoken language user, primarily speaks a non-English language(s)
• Does not have access to remote video call technology