The accuracy of parent and teacher reports in assessing the vocabulary knowledge of Chinese children with hearing impairment

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate (a) the accuracy of adult reports in assessing the vocabulary knowledge of Cantonese-speaking children with hearing impairment (HI) and (b) the factors that are associated with the accuracy of those reports. Method: The first participant group consisted of 47 children and their mothers. The second group consisted of 47 children and 21 teachers. All of the children had profound HI, with a mean age of 57 months. The ratings of the adults were compared with the children's test scores in a standardized test. Results: Both adult groups reported children's performance with satisfactory accuracy. Mother and teacher ratings showed fair to good agreement with each other. Two factors significantly associated with the accuracy of the report were (a) the difficulty of the vocabulary and (b) the child's vocabulary ability as determined by the standardized norm-referenced receptive vocabulary test. The mothers' education level, occupation, and socioeconomic status, and the teachers' teaching experience and length of time they had trained the child, were not significant factors. Conclusion: The results suggest that employing adult reports to collect data on the word knowledge of children with HI is applicable to a broad spectrum of the Cantonese-speaking Chinese population.