The Interaction Between Phonological Reading Skills and Executive Functioning in Adults with Cochlear Implants

Little research has been conducted concerning the interaction between phonological reading skills (the ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds of language) and executive functioning (a set of processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior) in adults with hearing loss. The current study examined the potential association between phonological reading skills, hearing loss, and executive functioning in post-lingually deaf and hard of hearing adults who use cochlear implants. Two hypotheses were tested: 1) adult cochlear implant users have weaker executive functioning and phonological reading skills compared to their hearing peers; 2) adults with hearing loss who use cochlear implants will rely on executive functioning more to complete phonological reading tasks when compared to the TH group of participants. Design: Thirty-one post-lingually deafened older adults with cochlear implants (CIs) and 43 peers with age-typical hearing (TH) completed measures of phonological reading skills from the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE-2) and measures of executive functioning skills from The Learning, Executive and Attention Functioning Scale (LEAF). Results: A one-tailed t-test revealed that the Hearing group had significantly higher scores than the adults with cochlear implants on the TOWRE-2 Test (t(69) = 1.96, p = .03). However, there were no significant group differences on subscales of the LEAF, suggesting that participants across groups self-reported comparable levels of executive functioning. Scores on the basic reading skills subtest from the LEAF were negatively correlated with non-words correct from the TOWRE-2 Test for the Hearing group (r(38) = -.37, p = .02). In contrast, the measures of executive functioning from the LEAF did not correlate with the TOWRE-2 phonological reading tasks for the adults with cochlear implants. Conclusions: Overall, these findings suggest that neither group of adults used executive function skills during the phonological reading test. The hearing adults used phonics skills to make sense of non-words but adults with cochlear implants did not. These findings contribute to our understanding of hearing loss and phonological reading skills. Future studies are needed to investigate potential barriers to phonological processing and reading in children with dyslexia and hearing loss.