بررسی و مقایسه نیمرخ دستوری کودکان کم‌شنوای فارسی‌زبان با کودکان شنوا

Abstract
Auditory function is fundamental to natural language development, and its impairment can lead to serious disorders in grammar acquisition. This descriptive-analytical field study aimed to delineate the grammatical profile of Persian-speaking hearing-impaired children and compare it with hearing peers using a standardized test. The statistical population comprised hearing-impaired children from Baghcheban schools in Tehran, from which 10 second-grade hearing-impaired children were selected as the experimental group and 10 hearing children as the control group via convenience sampling. The research instrument was the standardized "Grammatical Expression" test by Haresabadi et al. (2016), comprising 40 items assessing 20 grammatical structures. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test. Results demonstrated a significant difference between groups in overall grammatical expression. Specifically, hearing-impaired children exhibited the greatest difficulties in complex syntactic structures, including adverbial relative clauses, causative constructions, and contrastive pronouns. They also showed substantial weaknesses in inflectional categories such as verb tense, mood, aspect, verb agreement, and attached pronouns. These findings clearly indicate a considerably weaker grammatical profile in hearing-impaired children compared to hearing peers. This weakness was particularly evident in complex syntactic structures and inflectional categories. The results strongly emphasize the necessity of designing early, targeted, and intensive speech therapy interventions that focus on explicit instruction of these challenging structures. Such interventions can significantly reduce the linguistic gap and improve communication skills in these children.
Keywords: Cochlear Implantation, Grammatical Expression Test, Grammatical Profile, Hearing-Impaired Children, Persian Grammar
1. Introduction
Auditory perception constitutes a fundamental prerequisite for natural language acquisition, and any impairment in this sensory modality during critical developmental periods can result in significant linguistic deficits, particularly within the grammatical domain (Paul et al., 2013). Classical investigations have consistently demonstrated that children with hearing impairment exhibit notable constraints in sentence length and structural complexity, predominantly employing simple subject-verb-object constructions while demonstrating limited use of compound sentences and subordinate clauses (Goda, 1959; Heider & Heider, 1940; Quigley et al., 1974; Simmons, 1965.).
Typological differences between languages underscore the importance of independent investigation within each linguistic context. In Persian, several studies have reported significant weaknesses in language skills among hearing-impaired children compared to hearing peers (Lotfi et al., 2009; Rahgozar et al., 2009). Although cochlear implantation leads to improvements, performance remains below hearing peers (Mohseni Ezhiyeh et al., 2015). At the grammatical level, hearing-impaired children use simpler structures, fewer inflectional morphemes, and shorter sentences (Salmani et al., 2021; Shariat Razavi et al., 1998). Analysis of spontaneous speech reveals inappropriate omission of grammatical elements (Zarifian et al., 2012). Most Persian-language studies have relied on spontaneous speech samples (Golpour et al., 2007; Shariat Razavi et al., 1998; Zarifian et al., 2012) due to the absence of a standardized test for comprehensive assessment of Persian grammar in hearing-impaired children. Given the language-specific nature of grammatical errors, it is imperative to examine the grammatical profile of hearing-impaired children using standardized Persian instruments. The present study was conducted to address this gap.
Research Questions
The present study addressed three research questions:
(1) Is there a significant difference between the overall grammatical expression performance of Persian-speaking hearing-impaired children and their hearing peers?
(2) In which specific grammatical structures do hearing-impaired children demonstrate the most significant difficulties?
(3) What is the grammatical profile of Persian-speaking hearing-impaired children as measured by a standardized Persian language test?
2. Literature Review
Cross-linguistic research confirms persistent syntactic challenges in hearing-impaired children. Fujiyoshi et al. (2012) documented delays in complex Japanese structures until age 12, while Kawar (2021) reported fewer compound sentences and more morphological errors in Arabic. Taylor (1969) and Cooper (1967) showed hearing-impaired children acquire nominal/verbal structures before functional categories, with deaf adolescents performing at the level of 9-10-year-old hearing children. English studies (Schouwers et al., 2005; Volpato, 2009) revealed tense inflection weaknesses. Szagun (2004) found syntactic agreement errors in German, while Tur-Kaspa and Dromi (1998) and Szterman and Friedmann (2024) documented number/gender agreement errors in Hebrew. Klieve et al. (2023) confirmed morphological-syntactic challenges exceed lexical difficulties. Italian research documented difficulties with free morphological elements (Caselli et al., 2012; Chilosi et al., 2013; Giustolisi et al., 2021; Soleymani et al., 2016). Persian studies confirm simpler structures, fewer inflections, and inappropriate omissions (Amiri Shavaki et al., 2016; Golpour et al., 2007; Mohseni Ezhiyeh et al., 2015; Nikrosh et al., 2023; Salmani et al., 2021; Shariat Razavi et al., 1998; Valizadeh et al., 2015; Zarifian et al., 2012).
3. Methodology
This descriptive-analytical field study included 10 Persian-speaking monolingual hearing-impaired second-grade elementary children from Baghcheban schools in Tehran as the experimental group, and 10 monolingual hearing peers from regular schools as the control group, selected via convenience sampling. Inclusion criteria for the hearing-impaired group were: enrollment in Baghcheban elementary schools, cochlear implantation before age two, monolingual Persian speaking, and informed consent. Exclusion criteria were: concomitant disabilities, multilingualism, and lack of cooperation. The research instrument was the standardized "Grammatical Expression" test (Haresabadi et al., 2016), comprising 40 items assessing 20 different grammatical structures. Children were individually tested in a quiet room using a picture album. The Mann-Whitney non-parametric test was employed to compare group means.
4. Results
The hearing group demonstrated significantly higher mean scores in both "correct expression of grammatical items" (95.10% vs. 64.25%) and "correct expression of grammatical structures" (91.15% vs. 51.50%). The hearing-impaired group exhibited marked difficulties, with the lowest mean scores for contrastive pronouns (20%), adverbial relative clauses (30%), causative structures (30%), and attached pronouns (42.5%). The Mann-Whitney test revealed significant differences between groups in overall grammatical expression scores (Z=-3.16, p=0.002; Z=-3.26, p=0.001). At the subtest level, significant differences (p<0.05) were observed for subject relative clauses, adverbial relative clauses, copular verbs, verb agreement, tense/aspect/mood, attached pronouns, contrastive pronouns, prepositions, comparative/superlative adjectives, and causative structures.
5. Discussion
The findings clearly demonstrate that Persian-speaking hearing-impaired children exhibit a significantly weaker grammatical profile compared to their hearing peers, particularly in complex syntactic structures and inflectional categories. These results align with international research documenting persistent syntactic delays (Caselli et al., 2012; Fujiyoshi et al., 2012; Kawar, 2021). The difficulties observed in relative clauses and causative constructions reflect challenges with hierarchical syntactic relationships (Quigley et al., 1974). The weaknesses in inflectional categories corroborate findings by Schouwers and colleagues (2005) and Volpato (2009), suggesting that limited auditory input constrains morphological processing. The significant difference in preposition use aligns with reports by Szagun (2004) and Tur-Kaspa and Dromi (1998). Theoretically, these findings support Taylor's (1969) generative framework, wherein hearing-impaired children rely on simpler structures before mastering functional categories. The substantial individual variation likely reflects differences in rehabilitation quality and timing.
6. Conclusion
The findings provide compelling evidence that Persian-speaking hearing-impaired children possess a grammatical profile significantly inferior to their hearing peers, particularly in complex syntactic structures and inflectional categories. The results underscore the necessity of early, targeted, and intensive speech therapy interventions focusing on explicit instruction of these challenging structures. Limitations include the small sample size (n=10) and focus on a single grade level. Future research should employ larger samples across broader age ranges and conduct longitudinal studies to trace grammatical development.
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