en گفتاردرمانی Speech Therapy پژوهشي Research <p><strong>Background: </strong>In cognitive linguistics, the key factor in understanding of the abstract and metaphorical concepts is the individuals&rsquo; embodied experiences sensed by their body. Therefore, a better understanding of abstract concepts requires healthy senses and feelings. Hearing impairment leads to disorders in understanding abstract concepts. The present study is aimed to investigate the differences between 5 to 7 year-old Persian-speaking hearing-impaired children and their normal counterparts in terms of understanding embodied conceptual metaphors.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Methods:</strong> The present study was conducted on twenty 5 to 7 year-old Persian-speaking children with moderate to severe hearing impairment. The study investigated the participants&rsquo; understanding of abstract concepts when using embodied metaphors in four sensory-motor organs (the eyes, ears, hands and legs) through conducting a researcher-made task including both audio and audio-visual sections. The results of the hearing-impaired children were compared with the performance of 200 normal children.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Results:</strong> The findings of the present study indicated a significantly lower mean score of hearing-impaired children compared to their normal peers. The mean score of hearing-impaired participants was 9.6, while their normal counterparts scored 24.51. Moreover, it was indicated that the performance of 6 to 7 year-old hearing-impaired children was better than the 5 to 6 year-old children.</p> <p>&nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>Conclusion:</strong> Despite the quick reception through hearing aids, hearing-impaired children are unable to understand abstract and metaphorical concepts although they have an acceptable language competence unless receiving a direct professional training to understand the metaphors. The hearing-impaired children tend to interpret the metaphorical concepts literally and fail to understand the abstract metaphorical concepts. The findings of the present study clearly revealed the necessity of designing a cognitive rehabilitation protocol dedicated to the abstract concepts.</p> 111 118 http://fdj.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-117-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Vahideh Soltani 10031947532846001606 10031947532846001606 No Institute for Cognitive Science Studies Tehran, Iran Reza Nilipour 10031947532846001607 10031947532846001607 No 2. University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mehdi Purmohammad m_purmohammad@yahoo.com 10031947532846001608 10031947532846001608 No 1. Institute for Cognitive Science Studies Tehran, Iran Peyman Hasani-Abharian 10031947532846001609 10031947532846001609 Yes 1. Institute for Cognitive Science Studies Tehran, Iran