Conversational turns in deaf children in comparison to hearing peers: The correlation of conversational turns with language and attainment outcomes

It is established that a greater rate of conversational turns (CTs) is associated with improved language outcomes for hearing children (HC). This study investigates the number of CTs experienced by deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children and HC- a total of 10 children matched for age, gender and Special Educational Needs (SEN) in an Early Years mainstream setting in England. Successful and failed CTs were recorded using an observation schedule and coded. Participants undertook receptive vocabulary assessments and their attainment data (from the English National Curriculum statutory assessments) were collected. Datasets were analysed using statistical software. The results evidenced that in the Early Years, DHH children have lower receptive language and attainment levels, and experience statistically fewer successful CTs and more failed attempts at CTs than hearing children (p = 0.029). For both groups, there was a strong positive correlation between successful CTs and receptive vocabulary levels (r = .647). The relationship between CTC and attainment also reached statistical significance (p = 0.024) for both groups. Deaf children were more likely to have lower than average receptive vocabulary levels and did not meet attainment outcomes. This small-scale study adds additional evidence that successful CTs play an important role for DHH children in developing language skills and achieving academic attainment. The results suggest a trend towards an important link between CTs, language development and academic attainment for DHH children. More studies in this area are needed, but recommendations based on the results found here are discussed and are applicable to DHH children in mainstream settings.