The Use of Filled Pauses Across Multiple Discourse Contexts in Children Who Are Hard of Hearing and Children with Typical Hearing

Charlotte Hilker; Jacob J. Oleson; Mariia Tertyshnaia; Ryan W. McCreery; Elizabeth A. Walker

doi:10.3390/bs15081053

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The Use of Filled Pauses Across Multiple Discourse Contexts in Children Who Are Hard of Hearing and Children with Typical Hearing

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The Use of Filled Pauses Across Multiple Discourse Contexts in Children Who Are Hard of Hearing and Children with Typical Hearing

Charlotte Hilker, Jacob J. Oleson, Mariia Tertyshnaia, Ryan W. McCreery and Elizabeth A. Walker

Behavioral sciences, Vol.15(8), 1053

08/04/2025

DOI: 10.3390/bs15081053

PMCID: PMC12382971

PMID: 40867410

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Abstract

Filled pauses are thought to be reflections of linguistic processes (e.g., lexical retrieval, speech planning and execution). Uh may be a self-directed cue for when a speaker needs more time to retrieve lexical–semantic representations, whereas um serves as a listener-directed, pragmatic cue. The use of filled pauses has not been examined in children who are hard of hearing (CHH). Participants included 68 CHH and 33 children with typical hearing (CTH). Participants engaged in conversations, expository discourse, and fable retells. We analyzed filled pauses as a function of hearing status and discourse contexts and evaluated the relationship between filled pauses and language ability. CHH produced uh across discourse contexts more often than their hearing peers. CHH did not differ in their use of um relative to CTH. Both um and uh were used more often in conversational samples compared to other types of discourse. Spearman’s correlations did not show any significant associations between the rate of filled pauses and standardized language scores. These results indicate that CHH produces uh more often than CTH, suggesting that they may have difficulty retrieving lexical–semantic items during ongoing speech. This information may be useful for interventionists who are collecting language samples during assessment.

children

hearing loss

language samples

filled pauses

Details

Title: Subtitle: The Use of Filled Pauses Across Multiple Discourse Contexts in Children Who Are Hard of Hearing and Children with Typical Hearing
Creators: Charlotte Hilker - University of Iowa, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Jacob J. Oleson - University of Iowa, Biostatistics
Mariia Tertyshnaia - University of Iowa
Ryan W. McCreery - Boys Town National Research Hospital
Elizabeth A. Walker - University of Iowa
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Behavioral sciences, Vol.15(8), 1053
DOI: 10.3390/bs15081053
PMID: 40867410
PMCID: PMC12382971
NLM abbreviation: Behav Sci (Basel)
ISSN: 2076-328X
eISSN: 2076-328X
Publisher: MDPI
Grant note: National Institutes of Health NIH/NIDCD
This research was funded by National Institutes of Health NIH/NIDCD, grant numbers R01DC009560 and R01DC0019081.
Language: English
Date published: 08/04/2025
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Biostatistics; Otolaryngology
Record Identifier: 9984944725002771

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