Lexical-semantic abilities in deaf and hard of hearing children of elementary school age

Abstract

Speech and language development involves a number of developmental phases through which all children go through. Transition into the next phase is conditioned by successful mastering of the preceding phase. Adoption of vocals of the native tongue takes places parallel to vocabulary development. Auditory deprivation in deaf and hard of hearing children results in difficulties with language and speech adoption in all phases of development. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the lexical-semantic abilities of deaf and hard of hearing children of preschool age. The sample consisted of 46 deaf and hard of hearing pupils enrolled in grades four to eight of elementary school (37 with conventional hearing aids and 9 with cochlear implants). The instrument utilized in our evaluation of lexical-semantic abilities in deaf and hard of hearing children in elementary school was the Test for evaluating the level of speech development (Smiljka Vasic). The test consists of two sections The first section is a definition test, which consists of five of the most frequent nouns of the Serbian language taken from 'The Children's Dictionary' by Vera Lukic - man, mother, life, house and sun. The second part of the test is a test of contrasting adjectives, which consists of for adjectives which are on the list of the top 50 most frequent ones in the Serbian language (large, good, black and free). These four adjectives should be a part the vocabulary of all children before the age of three, thus it is assumed that they are known to the children. The acquired results show that there exists a difference in the lexical- semantic abilities of pupils with a cochlear implant and those with hearing aids. In the first part of the test, the definition test, pupils with hearing aids had the most wrong and echolalic responses. Functional definitions were most dominant in the group of pupils with cochlear implants and those with hearing aids, as well . On the second part of the test, the test of contrasting adjectives, the pupils with cochlear implants had more correct responses (on average 2 . 44) and they showed better results in comparison with the pupils with hearing aids, who on average had 1.54 correct responses.

Razvoj govora i jezika obuhvata nekoliko faza razvoja kroz koje prolaze sva deca. Prelaz u narednu fazu uslovljen je uspešnim savladavanjem prethodne faze. Usvajanje glasova maternjeg jezika teče paralelno sa razvojem rečnika. Auditivna deprivacija kod gluve i nagluve dece uzrokuje otežano usvajanje govora i jezika u svim fazama razvoja. Cilj ovog rada bio je da se ispitaju leksičko-semantičke sposobnosti gluve i nagluve dece osnovnoškolskog uzrasta. Uzorak je činilo 46 gluvih i nagluvih učenika od četvrtog do osmog razreda osnovne škole (37 sa konvencionalnim slušnim aparatima i 9 sa kohlearnim implantom). Instrument korišćen za ispitivanje leksičko-semantičkih sposobnosti kod gluve i nagluve dece u osnovnoj školi je Test za ispitivanje govorne razvijenosti (Smiljka Vasić). Test se sastoji iz dva dela. Prvi deo testa je test definicija koji se sastoji od pet najfrekventnijih imenica srpskog jezika uzetih iz 'Dečjeg rečnika' autora Vere Lukić - čovek, majka, život, kuća, sunce. Drugi deo testa je test pridevskih suprotnosti koji se sastoji od četiri prideva koji ulaze u prvih 50 najfrekventnijih u srpskom jeziku (veliki, dobar, crn, slobodan). Ova četiri prideva trebalo bi da ima u svom rečniku dete od tri godine, pa se pretpostavlja da su poznata deci. Dobijeni rezultati pokazuju da postoji razlika u leksičko-semantičkim sposobnostima između učenika sa kohlearnim imlantom i učenika sa konvencionalnim slušnim aparatima. Na prvom delu testa, testu definicije, učenici sa slušnim aparatima imali su najviše pogrešnih i eholaličnih odgovora. Funkcionalna definicija je bila dominantna i kod učenika sa kohlearnim implantom, i kod učenika sa slušnim aparatima. Na drugom delu testa, testu pridevskih suprotnosti, učenici sa kohlearnim implantom imali su više tačnih odgovora (u proseku 2,44) pokazali su bolji rezultat u odnosu na učenike sa slušnim aparatima, koji su u proseku imali 1,54 tačnih odgovora.