Objectives: To examine predictors of syllable extraction proficiency, a prerequisite for children with hearing impairments progressing from spoken to written language by the Kanazawa Method. Background: The rates of delayed language acquisition in children with hearing impairments have remained unchanged despite increased use of cochlear implants. Children born with hearing deficiencies do not receive sufficient auditory inputs, which contributes to delayed acquisition of spoken language. As spoken language is the springboard to written language, such children are likely to experience delays in acquisition of syllable awareness and written language when taught in the same way as children without hearing impairments. However, most research on syllable awareness in children with hearing impairments in Japan is related to studies targeting school-age children and later. Therefore, it remains unclear how to manage syllable awareness problems in pre-school-age children. Methods: This study was conducted on 68 children with hearing impairments, between 4 and 6 years of age, diagnosed by the Kanazawa University Hospital with congenital deafness before the age of 4 years and receiving outpatient language instruction. To examine the predictors of syllable extraction scores, we performed multiple-regression analysis with syllable extraction as the dependent variable and age, unaided hearing level, and scores for remaining language skills (auditory word comprehension, syllabification, syllable extraction, written language character recognition, and written language sentence comprehension) as independent variables. Results: Stepwise regression analysis showed that written language character recognition score, age, and auditory word comprehension score contributed to the syllable extraction score. Discussion: The relationship between syllable extraction proficiency and age was consistent with previous reports. Early intervention targeting character recognition and auditory word comprehension assisted the teaching of written language and improved syllable awareness in children with hearing impairments. The results of this study indicated that early-stage intervention in written language character recognition and auditory word comprehension is an effective method of teaching children with hearing impairments to facilitate acquisition of written language and the development of syllable awareness. The vocabulary and syllable awareness acquired by exposure to a combination of spoken language, Japanese sign language, and written language can be easily transferred to speechreading. Using the Kanazawa Method to facilitate understanding of the structure of Japanese language can help children with hearing impairments to acquire syllable extraction proficiency, regardless of their unaided hearing level.
外山 et al. (Thu,) studied this question.