Evaluation of Croatian-speaking children's speech with cochlear implants and comparison with hearing-aid users

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The aim of the study was to analyse the speech of the children with cochlear implants, and compare it with the speech of hearing controls. We focused on three categories of Croatian sounds: vowels (F1 and F2 frequencies), fricatives (noise frequencies of /s/ and /S/ ), and affricates (total duration and the pattern of stop-fricative components in /ts/ and /tS/ ). Eighteen implanted children, aged between 9;5 and 15;2 years participated in the study. All had been profoundly hearing impaired before implantation. Three recordings per child were made over a 20-month period. The hearing controls were matched for age and sex. Implanted children had a smaller and fronted vowel space, their /s/ and /S/ noise frequencies overlapped, affricates were longer, with a high proportion of incorrect productions and substitutions. With time, there was a small but steady overall improvement in all categories. Early intervention (rehabilitation and implantation) are crucial for good speech acquisition.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic analysis of the speech of children with cochlear implants: A longitudinal study

Liker

Mildner

Šindija³

2007

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Voice and pronunciation of cochlear implant speakers

Horga

Liker

2006

Patients with cochlear implants have the ability to exercise auditory control over their own speech production and over the speech of others, which is important for the development of speech control. In the present investigation three groups of 10 subjects were compared. The groups comprised: (1) cochlear implant users, (2) profoundly deaf using traditional hearing aids, and (3) hearing controls. The subjects in three groups were matched in age. While repeating after a model the subjects were recorded and the following linguistic voice variables were analysed: (1) vowel formant space, (2) voice vs. voiceless difference, (3) closure duration and VOT, (4) word accent production, (5) sentence stress production, (6) voice quality, (7) pronunciation quality. Acoustic analysis and perceptual assessment by phoneticians showed that in great majority of variables, subjects with cochlear implants performed better than the profoundly deaf subjects with traditional hearing-aids.

Speech perception of children with cochlear implants and children with traditional hearing aids

Mildner

Šindija²,

Zrinski

2006

The aim of the study was to analyse speech perception of children with cochlear implants (N = 29) and children fitted with traditional hearing aids (N = 20). One- and two-syllable words were presented auditorily in a forced choice minimal-pair discrimination task. The children repeated the word and pointed to the appropriate picture presented on computer screen. The words were minimal pairs with respect to voicing or place of articulation in stops and fricatives; among affricates the minimal pairs included the most frequently substituted fricatives and stops in addition to voicing and place of articulation. Vowel discrimination was tested in minimal pairs and in nonsense words differing only in the vowel. Unaided, all children were profoundly hearing impaired and were included in auditory-oral therapy (Verbotonal method). The smallest differences between the groups were found for stops and vowels, and the largest for fricatives and affricates. The implanted children were significantly more successful.