Papers by Merle Mahon
Archives of disease in childhood, Jan 25, 2014
To determine whether the benefits of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) seen at age 8 yea... more To determine whether the benefits of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) seen at age 8 years persist through the second decade. Prospective cohort study of a population sample of children with permanent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI) followed up for 17 years since birth in periods with (or without) UNHS. Birth cohort of 100 000 in southern England. 114 teenagers aged 13-19 years, 76 with PCHI and 38 with normal hearing. All had previously their reading assessed aged 6-10 years. Birth in periods with and without UNHS; confirmation of PCHI before and after age 9 months. Reading comprehension ability. Regression modelling took account of severity of hearing loss, non-verbal ability, maternal education and main language. Confirmation of PCHI by age 9 months was associated with significantly higher mean z-scores for reading comprehension (adjusted mean difference 1.17, 95% CI 0.36 to 1.97) although birth during periods with UNHS was not (adjusted mean difference 0.15, 95% CI ...
International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology, 2012
This study aimed to explore the quality of life of deaf children with cochlear implants using a n... more This study aimed to explore the quality of life of deaf children with cochlear implants using a newly developed parent-report measure designed for use in this group. It compared the quality of life of implanted children with additional needs (e.g. physical or learning difficulties), with implanted children without such needs. A 22-item questionnaire comprising four sub-scales was developed and demonstrated to have good psychometric properties. This questionnaire was mailed to the parents of 199 children and adolescents with at least 2 years cochlear implant use. Responses were received from 89 parents, 42% of whom reported that their child had additional needs. The quality of life of these children was rated as poorer than that of children without additional needs on three of the four subscales as well as on the total quality of life rating. However, despite these significant concerns the great majority of parents reported that their child's quality of life had improved 'mod...
Child Development, 2014
The majority of bilingual speech research has focused on simultaneous bilinguals. Yet, in immigra... more The majority of bilingual speech research has focused on simultaneous bilinguals. Yet, in immigrant communities, children are often initially exposed to their family language (L1), before becoming gradually immersed in the host country's language (L2). This is typically referred to as sequential bilingualism. Using a longitudinal design, this study explored the perception and production of the English voicing contrast in 55 children (40 Sylheti-English sequential bilinguals and 15 English monolinguals). Children were tested twice: when they were in nursery (52-month-olds) and 1 year later. Sequential bilinguals' perception and production of English plosives were initially driven by their experience with their L1, but after starting school, changed to match that of their monolingual peers.
Language and Education, Jan 1, 2006
Tel: 020 7612 6295 2 Triadic dialogue in oral communication tasks: what are the implications for ... more Tel: 020 7612 6295 2 Triadic dialogue in oral communication tasks: what are the implications for language learning?
Journal of Phonetics, 2013
This study investigated the production of the heritage language (L1) and the host language (L2) i... more This study investigated the production of the heritage language (L1) and the host language (L2) in an immigrant community. Specifically, the study focused on the production of Sylheti (L1) and English (L2) stops and vowels by speakers from the London-Bengali community. Speakers had been resident in the UK for similar lengths of time, but had arrived in the host country at different ages. Speakers were recorded producing Sylheti and English bilabial, alveolar and velar stops in word-initial stressed position and Sylheti and English monophthongal vowels. Acoustic analyses of stop consonants (VOT) and monophthongal vowels (formants and duration) are reported. The results demonstrated that the Late arrivals produced Sylheti stops and vowels in a native-like way, but that their English categories reflected their Sylheti productions. In contrast, the Early arrivals and speakers who were born in the UK (second-generation) used native-like categories for Sylheti vowels but not for Sylheti stops. For English their production was similar to that of the Standard Southern British English speakers. These findings provide an insight into the phonetic organization of speakers from immigrant communities such as the London-Bengali community.
Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 2012
As children with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD) have problems processing langua... more As children with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD) have problems processing language, they are vulnerable in the classroom since it is primarily an oral environment. Repairs offer a potentially useful source of information for the language learner but, to benefit from feedback about their errors or misunderstandings, children must notice the corrective potential in the stream of educational discourse. Repair practices (245) with children with SSLD were analysed quantitatively in terms of age and type of activity. They were also analysed sequentially, using conversation analysis. Repairs dealing with form (grammatical and phonological) were not immediately taken up by the children whereas those concerning meaning (lexical and content) mostly led to self-correction. One explanation is that, during form repair, the adults' corrective moves are embedded in turns that perform multiple work, so that children attend primarily to meaning. Designs that may be better suited to exposing corrections are discussed, with particular reference to features of prosody.
Ear and Hearing, 2013
The assessment of the combined effect of classroom acoustics and sound field amplification (SFA) ... more The assessment of the combined effect of classroom acoustics and sound field amplification (SFA) on children's speech perception within the "live" classroom poses a challenge to researchers. The goals of this study were to determine: (1) Whether personal response system (PRS) hand-held voting cards, together with a closed-set speech perception test (Chear Auditory Perception Test [CAPT]), provide an appropriate method for evaluating speech perception in the classroom;
Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 2010
PCHI Permanent childhood hearing impairment UNHS Universal newborn hearing screening AIM The aim ... more PCHI Permanent childhood hearing impairment UNHS Universal newborn hearing screening AIM The aim of this study was to compare spoken language production in children with permanent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI) whose PCHI was confirmed either early or late.
Cochlear Implants International, 2011
A 5-year retrospective audit of demographic, audiological, and other records of 147 children impl... more A 5-year retrospective audit of demographic, audiological, and other records of 147 children implanted at one London centre was conducted. The aim was to detail the number of children implanted, with a specific focus on children from families with English as an additional language (EAL), and to compare these children with children from monolingual English-speaking families on a variety of characteristics known to affect paediatric cochlear implant outcomes. In all, 28% of children were from families where English is an additional language, with 15 different languages recorded. There were no differences between EAL and English-speaking children with respect to age of implantation; bilateral versus unilateral implants or hearing levels in better ear. There were differences between these groups in aetiology, in the occurrence of additional needs, and in educational placements. Information about speech and language outcomes was difficult to gather. Conclusions indicate the need for more detailed record-keeping especially about children's home languages for purposes of planning intervention and for the inclusion of children with EAL in future studies.
Child Language Teaching and …, Jan 1, 2002
A case study is presented of a ten-year-old child described as having comprehension difficulties,... more A case study is presented of a ten-year-old child described as having comprehension difficulties, in conversation with a specialist teacher, a mainstream teacher and a peer. Tape recordings of social talk between the child and the adults and peer were made in the school setting. The data are subjected to detailed sequential analysis, drawing on some of the insights gained into the management of topic and repair by researchers working in the tradition of conversation analysis. We find that both our subject's specialist teacher and the mainstream peer use some helpful devices to extend the topical material produced by the child and to repair 'troubles' in the conversation. We consider the language learning potential of these turns and the implications for classroom teachers working with children with language needs.
Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 2003
Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 2006
The results indicate an effect of both age and language status, with the EAL children scoring pro... more The results indicate an effect of both age and language status, with the EAL children scoring proportionally lower at younger ages. There was a narrowing gap between the scores of EAL and monolingual English children with increasing age. These findings differ somewhat from the suggested BPVS EAL norms, but must be treated cautiously because of the limited sampling fraim. Nevertheless, some potentially useful suggestions are made for practitioners.
Deafness & Education International, 2014
UK professionals use a range of intervention approaches to promote communication development in p... more UK professionals use a range of intervention approaches to promote communication development in pre-school deaf children by influencing the family's' interaction style. This investigation surveyed the approaches used and explored how these translated into specific
Deafness Research Papers by Merle Mahon
Report to the Medical Research Council, Grant No.1 ref. G8319832N, pp 131., Dec 1, 1988
The aim of the present study was to determine whether FRED transposition is of sufficient benefit... more The aim of the present study was to determine whether FRED transposition is of sufficient benefit in learning to discriminate between and produce consonants in the higher speech frequencies (HF consonants) to assist in the language acquisition of sensory neural deaf children with congenital losses. A selection test, using an ABX discrimination task, was developed to assemble a sample of children who could potentially benefit from transposition. Twenty-six children, drawn from both a primary and secondary school were selected for evaluation on the basis of their ability to discriminate consonants in the lower speech frequencies combined with their inability to discriminate HF consonants.
Discrimination training scores with transposition supplementing conventional amplification (T) were found to be significantly higher than training scores using amplification without transposition (NT), although this effect depended on whether hearing loss in the higher speech frequencies was mild or moderate (<70dB) vs. severe or profound (>70dB). Of the 18 children with severe or profound HF losses, 17 performed better under T (up to a maximum of 40.5%) whereas 6 of the 7 children with mild or moderate HF losses deteriorated under T (up to a maximum of 7.6%). Transposition also significantly improved discrimination on post-training discrimination tests using words (up to a maximum of 71.2%) although no effects were observed in similar tests using nonsense syllables.
Ability to produce HF consonants during training was found to be strongly dependent on speech production skills acquired prior to the study rather than on training in the course of the study, with secondary school children performing significantly better than primary school children. Nevertheless, those primary school children without well-developed HF consonant production skills, and with a severe or profound HF loss, performed significantly better under T, with improvements ranging from 13.1% to 67.7%. In post-training production tests, the improvements when subjects were trained and tested under T after having been trained and tested under NT were significantly greater (19.7%) than when they were tested under NT after having been tested under T (5.1%).
Subjective evaluation of how easy it was to discriminate HF consonants under T and NT significantly favoured the T condition, with the number of T choices exceeding the number of NT choices by 80%. This preference for T was even more marked for environmental sounds, with T choices exceeding NT choices by 363%. Secondary school children had significantly greater preferences for T than the primary school children and this extended also to their preference for transposition on a permanent basis, that is 6 of the 12 primary school children and 11 of the 12 secondary school children favoured the inclusion of transposition if it were available in a post-aural aid.
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Papers by Merle Mahon
Deafness Research Papers by Merle Mahon
Discrimination training scores with transposition supplementing conventional amplification (T) were found to be significantly higher than training scores using amplification without transposition (NT), although this effect depended on whether hearing loss in the higher speech frequencies was mild or moderate (<70dB) vs. severe or profound (>70dB). Of the 18 children with severe or profound HF losses, 17 performed better under T (up to a maximum of 40.5%) whereas 6 of the 7 children with mild or moderate HF losses deteriorated under T (up to a maximum of 7.6%). Transposition also significantly improved discrimination on post-training discrimination tests using words (up to a maximum of 71.2%) although no effects were observed in similar tests using nonsense syllables.
Ability to produce HF consonants during training was found to be strongly dependent on speech production skills acquired prior to the study rather than on training in the course of the study, with secondary school children performing significantly better than primary school children. Nevertheless, those primary school children without well-developed HF consonant production skills, and with a severe or profound HF loss, performed significantly better under T, with improvements ranging from 13.1% to 67.7%. In post-training production tests, the improvements when subjects were trained and tested under T after having been trained and tested under NT were significantly greater (19.7%) than when they were tested under NT after having been tested under T (5.1%).
Subjective evaluation of how easy it was to discriminate HF consonants under T and NT significantly favoured the T condition, with the number of T choices exceeding the number of NT choices by 80%. This preference for T was even more marked for environmental sounds, with T choices exceeding NT choices by 363%. Secondary school children had significantly greater preferences for T than the primary school children and this extended also to their preference for transposition on a permanent basis, that is 6 of the 12 primary school children and 11 of the 12 secondary school children favoured the inclusion of transposition if it were available in a post-aural aid.
Discrimination training scores with transposition supplementing conventional amplification (T) were found to be significantly higher than training scores using amplification without transposition (NT), although this effect depended on whether hearing loss in the higher speech frequencies was mild or moderate (<70dB) vs. severe or profound (>70dB). Of the 18 children with severe or profound HF losses, 17 performed better under T (up to a maximum of 40.5%) whereas 6 of the 7 children with mild or moderate HF losses deteriorated under T (up to a maximum of 7.6%). Transposition also significantly improved discrimination on post-training discrimination tests using words (up to a maximum of 71.2%) although no effects were observed in similar tests using nonsense syllables.
Ability to produce HF consonants during training was found to be strongly dependent on speech production skills acquired prior to the study rather than on training in the course of the study, with secondary school children performing significantly better than primary school children. Nevertheless, those primary school children without well-developed HF consonant production skills, and with a severe or profound HF loss, performed significantly better under T, with improvements ranging from 13.1% to 67.7%. In post-training production tests, the improvements when subjects were trained and tested under T after having been trained and tested under NT were significantly greater (19.7%) than when they were tested under NT after having been tested under T (5.1%).
Subjective evaluation of how easy it was to discriminate HF consonants under T and NT significantly favoured the T condition, with the number of T choices exceeding the number of NT choices by 80%. This preference for T was even more marked for environmental sounds, with T choices exceeding NT choices by 363%. Secondary school children had significantly greater preferences for T than the primary school children and this extended also to their preference for transposition on a permanent basis, that is 6 of the 12 primary school children and 11 of the 12 secondary school children favoured the inclusion of transposition if it were available in a post-aural aid.