# Language Development and Social Interaction in Children with Hearing Loss

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI CORAL GABLES · 2022 · $296,183

## Abstract

Project Summary
This project uses objectively measured, longitudinal data to capture the vocal interactions of children with hearing loss in
order to understand everyday factors that facilitate their language development. Significance. Hearing loss (HL) is
associated with delays and difficulties in social and language development. Even with cochlear implantation (CI), HL is a
life-altering condition with high social costs. Inclusion of children with HL and typically hearing (TH) peers in preschool
classrooms is a national standard, but little is known about how early interaction contributes to the language development
of these children. The project premise, supported by preliminary data, holds that language-mediated interactions with
peers and teachers in inclusive classrooms positively influences the language development of both children with HL and
their TH peers. Innovation. Temporally intensive, objective measurements of child and teacher movement in classrooms
will be synchronized with automated analysis of continuously recorded, child-specific audio recordings. Computational
modeling of child location and orientation within classrooms will indicate when children are in social contact with their
peers and teachers, fertile periods for language-mediated interaction. Approach. Participants will include 125 children (55
with hearing loss who have cochlear implants or hearing aids, and 70 with typical hearing) who are enrolled in three
inclusive oral language classrooms. Children will be observed longitudinally in an early preschool (2-year-old), preschool
(3-year-old), and pre-kindergarten (4-year-old) classes. Each class will be observed once per year over the 5 year project.
(15 unique classes). Objective measurements of social contact and language use occur twice a month while standardized
assessments of receptive/expressive language competencies occur at the beginning and end of the school year. Aim 1.
Determine whether exposure to partner speech during periods of social contact longitudinally predicts speech to those
partners during social contact. Overall, higher levels of socially mediated exposure to peer and teacher speech are
hypothesized to predict higher speech to those partners. Socially mediated exposure to more vocally responsive partner
speech and more phonemically complex speech is hypothesized to yield higher rates of more phonemically complex child
speech. Aim 2. Determine the longitudinal influence of speech to partners during social contact on the development of
children's language competencies. Children's speech to peers and teachers—particularly more phonemically complex
speech—is hypothesized to be associated with increases in their assessed language competencies. Aim 3. Determine
whether hearing loss directly or indirectly impacts the longitudinal development of speech to partners during social
contact and assessed language competencies. In addition to testing for differences between children with HL and TH,
Aim 3 explo...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10335271
- **Project number:** 5R01DC018542-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI CORAL GABLES
- **Principal Investigator:** DANIEL S MESSINGER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $296,183
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-02-01 → 2026-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10335271

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10335271, Language Development and Social Interaction in Children with Hearing Loss (5R01DC018542-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10335271. Licensed CC0.

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