Language Input Matters for the Development of Numerical Concepts: Evidence from Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

• In Event: Navigating Number Concepts Across Development

Abstract

It has been reported that deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children have historically struggled with formal and informal math assessments compared to their hearing peers (HP). These gaps emerge in children as young as 3-years-old and continue throughout childhood and into adulthood. Recent research has also shown disparities between DHH children and their hearing peers in approximate number system (ANS) acuity. While much is known about the difficulties DHH children experience with numerical concepts, less is known about the reason these performance differences exist between DHH and hearing children, as deafness itself would not cause these disparities. In this study, we investigated whether reduced language input experienced by DHH children (in particular, the time between birth and when they first gain access to a fluent language) challenges the emergence of early number concepts, affecting future math abilities.

In this study, we investigated whether limited language access explained numerical delays in DHH children. To do so, we explored whether language age (the amount of time children had auditory access to fluent language) accounted for group differences in performance on both nonsymbolic (ANS) and symbolic (Give-N) numerical tasks in preschool children.

Three- to six-year-old children with (n = 14) and without (n = 45) hearing loss participated in this study. All DHH children attended preschools for children with hearing loss where they learned to listen and communicate orally. Children completed tasks measuring ANS acuity (Panamath) and verbal number knowledge (Give-N). Parents completed the Developmental Vocabulary Assessment for Parents (DVAP) to capture their child’s vocabulary abilities. In line with prior findings, when controlling for chronological age, DHH children perform worse overall on our measure of ANS acuity, Panamath (p = .005), verbal number knowledge (p < .001), and vocabulary (p = .001). Importantly, however, when language age replaced chronological age in the models, the overall models remained significant (p’s<.001), but group differences in ANS acuity and number knowledge disappeared (p’s > .5), while group differences in vocabulary remained (p = .007). These findings indicate that language exposure is an important catalyst for numerical development, supporting previous research linking language to numerical cognition and offering new insights regarding the role language plays in numerical development.

Authors

• Stacee Santos, Boston College
  Presenting Author

• Hiram Brownell, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marie Coppola, University of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna Shusterman, Wesleyan University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sara Cordes, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author