INTRODUÇÃO: O desenvolvimento das habilidades auditivas sofre influência dos estímulos sonoros aos quais as crianças são expostas. Filhos ouvintes de pais surdos (CODAs - Children of Deaf Adults) geralmente não recebem os estímulos de fala da mesma forma que crianças filhas de ouvintes. Tendo em vista que as informações sonoras são importantes para o processo maturacional do sistema auditivo, torna-se pertinente a análise das habilidades auditivas de CODAs que foram pouco expostas à linguagem oral na primeira infância. OBJETIVO: Comparar o processamento auditivo de crianças filhas de surdos, que foram pouco expostas à língua oral no início de suas vidas, com o de crianças filhas de ouvintes. MÉTODO: Participaram deste estudo 60 crianças, na faixa etária entre 5 e 10 anos de idade, com avaliação audiológica básica (audiometria, logoaudiometria e imitanciometria) dentro dos limites de normalidade, destras, sem histórico de doenças sistêmicas e/ou neurológicas que pudessem afetar o sistema nervoso central e sem aprendizado prévio de música ou de segunda língua oral. Foram formados dois grupos semelhantes quanto a idade e sexo, sendo o Grupo Estudo (GE) composto por 30 crianças filhas de surdos sinalizadores, e o Grupo Controle (GC), por 30 crianças filhas de ouvintes. Os testes selecionados foram: Pediatric Speech Intelligibility em português, Dicótico de Dígitos, Padrão de Frequência, Gaps-In-Noise e também testes de Memória para Sons Instrumentais e Verbais. RESULTADOS: Houve diferença estatisticamente significante de desempenho entre os dois grupos, em todos os testes aplicados, com pior desempenho para o GE. Na análise de desempenho dos grupos por faixa etária, foi possível observar que a média de desempenho do GE ficou abaixo da apresentada pelo GC em todos os testes e em todas as idades avaliadas, sendo a diferença de desempenho entre os grupos maior em faixas etárias menores (5 e 6 anos). CONCLUSÕES: Pode-se concluir que a pouca exposição a estímulos linguísticos orais no início da infância, associada a fatores específicos da vivência de grande parte dos CODAs estudados, contribuiu para o baixo desempenho do GE nos testes. Assim, esses resultados indicam que estímulos sonoros ambientais, sobretudo os de linguagem oral, exercem importante influência no desenvolvimento das habilidades auditivas. Este estudo chama a atenção para a importância do acompanhamento auditivo de filhos ouvintes de pais surdos, assim como para a necessidade de exposição destas crianças aos sons linguísticos orais desde o início de suas vidas / INTRODUCTION: The development of auditory skills is influenced by the sound stimuli to which children are exposed. Hearing children of deaf adults (CODAs) do not usually receive speaking stimuli in the same way as those of hearing adults. Given that sound information is important to the maturation process of the auditory system, it is pertinent to analyze the auditory skills of hearing children of deaf signer adults that were little exposed to oral language in their infancy. OBJECTIVE: To compare the auditory processing of CODAs that were little exposed to oral language in their early infancy with that of children of hearing adults. METHOD: A total of 60 children aged 5-10 years participated in the present study. All participants received normal ratings in their basic audiometric evaluation (audiometry, speech audiometry and imitanciometry). They were right-handed, without a history of systemic and/or neurological diseases that might affect the central nervous system, and without previous musical or second spoken language training. Two groups similar in age and sex were established: the Study Group (SG) comprised 30 children of deaf signer adults and the Control Group (CG) comprised 30 children of hearing adults. The tests selected were Pediatric Speech Intelligibility, Dichotic Digits, Pitch Pattern, Gaps-In-Noise, and Memory for Instrumental Sounds and Verbal Sounds. RESULTS: The SG performed significantly worse than the CG for all tests. Moreover, an analysis of the performance of the groups per age range revealed that for all age ranges assessed, the SG performance average was below that of the CG average; the performance difference between the groups was greater in younger children (5- and 6-year olds). CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that the low exposure to oral linguistic stimuli during infancy, associated with specific aspects of the experience of a large proportion of the CODAs studied, contributed to the low performance of the SG in the tests. These results indicate that ambient sound stimuli, especially those related to oral language, strongly influence auditory skills. This study highlights to the importance of the auditory follow-up of hearing CODAs, as well as to the need for exposing these children to oral linguistic sounds from a very early age

Introduction. Les fonctions cognitives évoluent avec l’âge : certaines tendent à diminuer dans leur efficacité alors que d’autres se maintiennent. Des recherches ont montré que le vieillissement affecte la rotation mentale, la perception spatiale, la visualisation spatiale et la prise de perspective. Des facteurs sociodémographiques et comportementaux peuvent aussi influencer le cheminement du vieillissement cognitif des personnes âgées. À titre d’exemple, l'expérience langagière, comme le bilinguisme, agit comme un facteur neuroprotecteur contribuant à la réserve cognitive. L’impact de l’utilisation d’une langue des signes sur la cognition spatiale a suscité beaucoup d’intérêt chez les chercheurs s’intéressant aux langues des signes. Pourtant, aucune recherche n’a encore abordé l’effet de l’utilisation à long terme d’une langue des signes sur la cognition spatiale des signeurs aînés. Objectif. Le but de cette thèse est d’examiner s’il existe des différences sur le plan des habiletés spatiales entre signeurs (sourds et entendants) et non-signeurs de différents groupes d’âge. Plus précisément, cette thèse a examiné i) si la performance à des tâches d’habiletés spatiales diffère selon l’âge (jeunes adultes/aînés) et l’expérience linguistique (signeurs sourds/entendants signeurs/entendants non-signeurs) et ii) si la performance diffère selon la sous-composante d’habiletés spatiales ciblée (perception spatiale; visualisation spatiale; rotation mentale; prise de perspective). Méthode. Pour investiguer l’effet de l’âge et de l’expérience linguistique sur les habiletés spatiales, une collecte de données auprès de 120 participants a été effectuée : 60 adultes âgés de 64 à 80 ans (20 sourds signeurs, 20 entendants signeurs, 20 entendants non-signeurs) et 60 jeunes adultes de 18 à 35 ans (20 sourds signeurs, 20 entendants signeurs, 20 entendants non-signeurs). Afin de s’assurer de l’admissibilité des participants, une évaluation de l’acuité visuelle, de l’acuité auditive, des compétences langagières (français et langue des signes québécoise), de la santé cognitive et de l’intelligence a été effectuée. Les participants ont été appariés entre groupes d’expérience linguistique selon leur niveau d’éducation et d’intelligence. Les quatre sous-composantes d’habiletés spatiales ciblées (perception spatiale; visualisation spatiale; rotation mentale; prise de perspective) ont été testées par l’entremise d’une batterie de sept tests psychométriques. Résultats. Conformément à ce qui a été précédemment observé sur l’effet de l’âge sur les habiletés spatiales, les résultats en termes de justesse de la réponse ont révélé que les jeunes signeurs sourds obtiennent globalement de meilleurs résultats que les signeurs sourds aînés dans toutes les tâches d’habiletés spatiales. De plus, les résultats ont montré un avantage des entendants signeurs sur les entendants non-signeurs aux tâches de rotation mentale et de prise de perspective, quel que soit leur âge. Un avantage général des signeurs aînés (sourds et entendants) par rapport aux non-signeurs aînés a été observé uniquement pour les tâches de visualisation spatiale en termes de justesse de la réponse. Ces résultats suggèrent que les changements cognitifs associés au vieillissement ont un effet sur le traitement de l’information spatiale quelle que soit la modalité linguistique utilisée et que l’effet de l’utilisation de la langue des signes sur les processus spatiaux semblent différer entre les signeurs sourds et les signeurs entendants. Discussion. Cette recherche transversale a permis d’étudier pour la première fois l’impact du vieillissement sur les habiletés spatiales des utilisateurs d’une langue des signes. Également, elle explore le facteur potentiellement atténuant de l’utilisation de la langue des signes quant aux effets de l’âge sur la performance à des tâches d’habiletés spatiales. Sur la base des résultats, il est proposé que l’effet de l’utilisation d’une langue des signes sur la cognition spatiale est spécifique aux sous-domaines d’habiletés spatiales (perception spatiale; visualisation spatiale; rotation mentale; prise de perspective), et que l’expérience linguistique, telle que le bilinguisme bimodal, est un facteur d’intérêt dans la relation entre l’utilisation d’une langue des signes et les processus spatiaux. Conclusion. Les résultats rapportés dans la présente thèse seront utiles aux futurs chercheurs intéressés par l’étude de la cognition chez les aînés signeurs. Des recherches futures devraient se poursuivre dans cette direction afin de préciser l’impact du bilinguisme bimodal sur la cognition spatiale à la lumière de ce qui est connu des effets protecteurs du bilinguisme unimodal face au vieillissement. De plus, les recherches futures devraient envisager d’élargir la perspective de l’effet de l’âge sur les habiletés spatiales des signeurs, en tenant compte des données cognitives et linguistiques. Ces recherches pourraient investiguer la cause de la distinction dans le traitement d’informations spatiales sur la production et la compréhension d’une langue des signes. / Introduction. Across the adult lifespan, cognitive abilities change: some tend to decrease with age whereas others are maintained. The results of previous studies have shown that performance on tasks spatial perception, spatial visualization, mental rotation and perspective taking are poorer in older adults than in younger adults. Sociodemographic and behavioral factors may influence the cognitive aging trajectories of older adults. For example, language experience, such as bilingualism, may be a neuroprotective factor contributing to the cognitive reserve. The impact of language experience in another modality, as it is the case for visual-spatial language, on spatial cognition has generated much interest. To date, no research has addressed this issue with regards of the potential effect of longtime use of sign language on the spatial cognition of older signers. Aim. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether there are differences in spatial abilities among signers (deaf and hearing) and non-signers of different age groups. More specifically, this thesis examined i) if performance on tasks of spatial abilities differs according to age (younger/older) and linguistic experience (deaf signers/hearing signers/hearing non-signers) and ii) if performance differs according to the type of spatial abilities subcomponent targeted (spatial perception; spatial visualization; mental rotation; perspective taking). Methods. To examine the effect of age and linguistic experience on spatial abilities, data were collected from 120 participants: 60 older adults from 65 to 80 years of age (20 deaf signers, 20 hearing signers, 20 hearing non-signers) and 60 young adults ranging in age from 18 to 35 years (20 deaf signers, 20 hearing signers, 20 hearing non-signers). Prior to the experiment, participants were tested for visual and hearing acuity, language proficiency (Quebec Sign Language and French), cognitive health and intelligence. Based on their linguistic experience, the participants were matched on the basis of their educational level as well as their level of intelligence. The four subcomponents of spatial abilities were tested using a battery of seven tests. Results. Consistent with previously published data on the effect of age on spatial abilities, accuracy results revealed that the younger deaf signers constantly performed better than the older deaf signers on all tasks. Results also highlighted a specific advantage of hearing signers over hearing non-signers in terms of accuracy on mental rotation and perspective taking tasks regardless of age. A general advantage of older signers (deaf and hearing) over older non-signers was observed on spatial visualization tasks only. These results suggest that age-related cognitive changes impact the processing of spatial information regardless of the linguistic modality used. Also, the effect of sign language use on spatial processes may differ between deaf signers and hearing signers. Discussion. This cross-sectional research made it possible to investigate for the first time the impact of aging on spatial abilities among sign language users, as well as to explore the potential effect of sign language use with regards to performance on tasks of spatial abilities in an older population. Based on the results, it is proposed that the effect of sign language use is subdomain specific and that language experience such as bimodal bilingualism is a factor of interest in the relation between sign language use and spatial processing. Conclusion. The results reported in the present thesis will be helpful to future researchers interested in investigating aspects of cognition throughout the lifespan of older signers. Future research should be pursued in order to investigate the impact of bimodal bilingualism on spatial cognition in the light of the aging factor. In addition, future research should consider broadening the scope of this research area by examining in detail the interaction between cognitive skills and linguistic modality. Researches could address the effect of the distinction observed between deaf signers and hearing signers in terms of spatial processing and investigate links between spatial processing and sign language production and comprehension.