# Parent-child interactions and word learning in young deaf children with cochlear implants

> **NIH NIH R01** · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $626,078

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Severe-to-profound hearing loss during infancy is a risk factor for poor spoken language development, even
after early cochlear implantation. A key to acquiring spoken language is developing the ability to learn
associations between words and their referents (i.e., novel word learning). Many young children with cochlear
implants (CIs) struggle to learn novel words and those who do tend to have poor language outcomes. We
know that successful word learning in normal-hearing, typically developing children depends in large part on
the real-time quantitative and qualitative properties of parent-child social interactions, such as the synchrony
between when parents name objects and children’s attention to those objects. Our central hypothesis is that
the atypical auditory experiences of CI users influence naming synchrony, affecting word-learning opportunities
and language outcomes. This proposed project is built upon an already established collaboration between MPI
Chen Yu, who has developed a multi-method, multi-modal approach involving high-resolution data of eye,
head, and hand movements to characterize the micro-structure of social coordination, and MPI Derek Houston,
who has investigated speech perception and novel word learning in children with cochlear implants for over 18
years. We will collect multiple streams of data from both parents and children as they play with each other and
as parents spontaneously name novel objects, and investigate the role of congenital deafness and subsequent
cochlear implantation on the quantity and quality of naming synchrony and explore potential micro- and macro-
level mechanisms that may account for differences in naming synchrony between dyads with NH children and
those with children who use CIs (Aim 1). We will also determine and the effects of naming synchrony on word
learning in CI users and NH children (Aim 2). Finally, the proposed project will assess language outcomes six
months later and determine the extent to which differences in naming synchrony predict language outcomes
after accounting for concurrent auditory processing and language abilities (Aim 3). To our knowledge, this is
the first effort to investigate real-time micro-level properties of social interactions in children with CIs, which will
lead to new insights into real-time parent-child interactions and language outcomes after implantation, and will
potentially lead to new hypotheses for intervention studies involving precise feedback on parent-child
coordination.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10071916
- **Project number:** 5R01DC017925-02
- **Recipient organization:** OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Derek M Houston
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $626,078
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-01-01 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10071916

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10071916, Parent-child interactions and word learning in young deaf children with cochlear implants (5R01DC017925-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10071916. Licensed CC0.

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