Speech and Language Results in Children with a Cochlear Implant

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
At the House Ear Institute, speech and language assessments are a regular part of the evaluation protocol for the cochlear implant clinical trials in children. The assessments are con- ducted preimplant and at specific postimplant intervals. Paired comparisons of the children's performance at pre- and post- implant intervals reveal significant improvements in both imitative and spontaneous speech production abilities. However, some differences between groups are noted. Children implanted at an early age demonstrate a greater number of significant improve- ments in speech production, while children using oral communi- cation have better skills at all test intervals. In addition, significant improvements on three of the four receptive language measures and one of the four expressive language measures are demon- strated at the 6-mo postimplant test interval. A significant de- crease in performance is noted for one receptive language meas- ure. In a second study, the speech scores of control groups and postimplant groups of the same age (3,4, or 5 yr) are compared. Implanted children score higher in all but one of 24 contrasts, and these differences are statistically significant in five of the comparisons. of age most children (75%) are able to produce all the phonemes with the exception of /M/. Consonant blends are usually mastered by 8 yr of age, and phonological development has usually reached maturity by that time.27.46

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: