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A Comparative Study on Working Memory Ability of School-Aged Children with Cochlear Implants or Hearing Aids

  • Journal of Special Education: Theory and Practice
  • Abbr : JSPED
  • 2018, 19(3), pp.211-233
  • DOI : 10.19049/JSPED.2018.19.3.09
  • Publisher : Research Institute of the Korea Special Education
  • Research Area : Social Science > Education
  • Received : August 9, 2018
  • Accepted : September 20, 2018
  • Published : September 30, 2018

장재진 1 Son A Chang 2

1황혜경 보청기 청각언어센터
2서울대학병원 이비인후과학교실

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study investigated the differences in working memory performance according to the presence of hearing loss(HL) and the types of hearing prostheses. The correlations among the variables in the subject groups were also examined. Methods: A total of 45 children participated in this study with 15 children in each group; those fitted with cochlear implants(CI), those wearing hearing aids(HA), and those with typical hearing(TH). The language-age for all children was 9 years and their chronological ages ranged between 8 to 10 years. We compared working memory ability through completion of four different tasks; (1a) forward digit span, and (1b) nonsense sentence repetition task related to phonological functions; (2a) backward digit span, and (2b) reading span related to central executive function. Results: All the children with HL showed significantly lower performance in working memory tasks than the children with TH. The children with HL showed comparable language abilities which may mask the deficits in their working memory skills. The children fitted with CI achieved significantly better results in nonsense sentence repetition task than those wearing HA. There was no significant difference between the two groups when completing the other three tasks. There were relatively small numbers of significant correlations among the variables in all three groups. Despite of comparable intelligence, speech perception and language abilities, children with HL showed significantly lower working memory performance than children with TH. Children with CI scored better in all the 4 working memory tasks than children with HA with significant difference in the nonsense sentence task. There should be the various discussion about working memory and the measurement of it.

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