DOI: 10.1044/2026_jslhr-25-00753 ISSN: 1092-4388

False Belief Understanding in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children: Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis

Vaia Thomaidou, Konstantinos I. Bougioukas, Panagiota Peleka, Panagiota Metallidou
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Purpose:

This meta-analysis aimed to compare the performance of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children who use cochlear implants (CIs) or hearing aids (HAs) with their typically hearing (TH) peers on false belief (FB) understanding tasks.

Method:

Data were synthesized from 13 studies comprising 292 participants 1.92–14.03 years of age. A multilevel random-effects meta-analysis was conducted, followed by metaregression to examine the effects of age, mean age at onset, type of hearing amplifier, type of FB task, and method of response.

Results:

Results indicated significantly lower performance in DHH children ( g = −0.854, 95% confidence interval [−1.110, −0.599], p < .001) compared to their TH peers. Additionally, the CIs/HAs group showed a possible sensitivity when assessed with implicit tasks using eye gazing as a method of response.

Conclusion:

The results supported previous evidence on the essential role of language in FB skills development and indicated that performance in DHH children may be critically influenced by variability in task demands and method of response.

Supplemental Material:

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.33228822

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