Speech discrimination and MLUm (Uhler et al., 2026)

<b>Purpose:</b> The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among speech discrimination at 9 months of age, word recognition at 30 months of age, and mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLUm) at 33 months of age among children who are hard of hearing (CHH) and children with normal hearing (CNH). This study also explored early sociodemographic and audiological variables that may influence communication outcomes in CHH and CNH.<b>Method: </b>Participants included 18 CNH and 32 CHH with early and well-fit hearing aids (HAs). Measures included speech discrimination in response to vowel and consonant stimuli at 9 months, word recognition at 30 months, and a spontaneous language sample at 33 months.<b>Results:</b> Group-level differences were not observed in speech discrimination or word recognition but emerged for language outcomes. Specifically for language outcomes, CHH had shorter MLUms and produced fewer mental state verbs than CNH. Vowel discrimination and word recognition were related to each other, and word recognition was related to MLUm. Consonant discrimination did not relate to any other variables. Higher MLUm was related to maternal level of education, hearing status, and daily device use. Additionally, daily device use at both 9 and 30 months correlated with word recognition at 30 months.<b>Conclusions:</b> Early auditory measures (speech discrimination and daily device use) relate to later speech recognition and MLUm in young children wearing well-fit HAs. Clinicians should consider these early metrics, as well as spontaneous language samples to capture real-world conversational skills, to identify young CHH at risk for poorer language outcomes.<b>Supplemental Material S1.</b> Participants characteristics stratified by vowel discrimination at 9 months.<b>Supplemental Material S2. </b>Participants characteristics stratified by consonant discrimination at 9 months.<b>Supplemental Material S3. </b>Participants characteristics stratified by word recognition at 30 months.<b>Supplemental Material S4. </b>Participants characteristics stratified by mean length of utterance in morphemes at 33 months.Uhler, K. M., Shah, J., Gilley, P. M., Kaizer, A., Hunnicutt, C., Madrid, A., &amp; Warner-Czyz, A. D. (2026). Is there a relationship between infant and toddler speech discrimination abilities and mean length of utterance at 33 months? <i>Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, </i><i>69</i>(3), 1230–1248. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00719