OTITIS-MEDIA, HEARING SENSITIVITY, AND MATERNAL RESPONSIVENESS IN RELATION TO LANGUAGE DURING INFANCY

The relation of otitis media with effusion (OME) and associated hearin g loss to language and cognitive skills at 1 year of age was studied t o determine whether OME-related hearing loss had a direct association with language and cognitive outcomes at 1 year of age or an indirect a ssociation with these outcomes, as mediated by the child-tearing envir onment, Subjects were 61 black infants attending community-based child care programs, The presence of OME was assessed biweekly from 6 to 12 months of age by otoscopy and tympanometry, Hearing was assessed with visual reinforcement audiometry when children were well and when ill with OME, Language and cognitive skills and the child-rearing environm ent at home and in child care were examined, The results indicated a m odest correlation between hearing loss associated with OME and recepti ve language, However, the direct association between OME-related heari ng loss and all the language and cognitive measures was negligible, He aring loss had an indirect association with receptive and expressive l anguage, cognitive development, and overall communication as mediated by child-rearing factors. That is, children with more frequent hearing loss tended to have less responsive mothers and home environments, an d this association was linked to lower performance on the infant asses sments.