Phonological and grammatical production in children with developmental language disorder and children with hearing impairment

Children with hearing impairment (HI) are at an increased risk of developing speech and language problems similar to those of children with developmental language disorder (DLD), including difficulties with phonology and grammar. This study investigated similarities and differences in phonological and grammatical production between children with bilateral sensorineural HI (n = 14) and children with DLD (n = 30) between 4-6 years of age and age-matched controls with typical language development and normal hearing (TLD) (n = 29), all with Swedish as their first language. Production of consonants, vowels, stress patterns and tonal word accents was assessed in a picture naming task, and in a word and nonword repetition task. Grammatical production was assessed for verb and noun morphology, and syntax. While performance for both children with HI and DLD were generally significantly below that of the controls with TLD, production of accents and syntax emerged as relative strengths. There were few differences between the between the children with HI and DLD, but noun-adjective agreement in predicative was more challenging for the children with HI. The results have implications for language assessment and planning of intervention.