Abstract:
This article describes the data regarding the calculations of language input from the natural language environments of children with hearing loss, taken from four full typical days in a week using a LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) digital recorder. Calculations were based on 14 children with hearing loss from 24 to 60 months as they interacted with their family. Participants were recruited from the Hearing House, the Speech Clinic at the University of Auckland, and Early Childcare Centers (ECC) in Auckland, New Zealand. All families were interacting with their children orally without using sign language. Data were collected from natural language environments from May 2018 to May 2019. Language environments were examined in terms of daily quantity of language input and styles of oral interaction children were exposed to when interacting with their parent/primary caregiver. To determine quantity of language input, two kinds of observations were taken from the LENA automatic calculation of the number of adult words and number of conversational turns. Segments of the recordings were manually transcribed and coded onto 17 styles of oral interaction, which were further classified into three categories (optimal, moderate, and sub-optimal).
