engleski

Speech of Children with Cochlear Implants

This presentation is a compilation of the results of research into speech production and perception of Croatian hearing-impaired children who use cochlear implants. It covers the following topics: (a) speech production – sentence and individual sounds, particularly vowels, fricatives and affricates, (b) speech perception, (c) evaluation of speech quality of children who are hearing impaired, (d) multisensory integration, (e) short-term memory, (f) recognition and expression of emotions. It has been shown that continuous therapy is of utmost importance, because even short periods of inactivity result in setbacks. It needs to be stressed that improvement is possible as late as 4 years after implantation. In most cases there is non-linear progression, in other words, periods of improvement and development alternate with plateaus. Production mirrors perception, which supports the importance of developing good listening and auditory processing. In studies that aim at comparing the speech of children with cochlear implants with hearing controls it is important to take into account both their chronological and hearing age. Evaluating implanted children's speech raises numerous methodological issues, such as criteria for evaluation, choice of suitable analysis tools and the ability of assessors to detect subtle differences in children's renditions that may reflect emerging (target) phonological systems. It has been found that apart from (early) age at implantation and continuous rehabilitation, there are several other important factors that contribute to favorable outcomes: attitude of children and their care-givers and family, time devoted to „uninstitutionalized therapy“ within the family and among friends and efforts to maximize auditory-oral interaction in everyday communication. Successful users of cochlear implants very closely approximate hearing and speech behavior of children without hearing impairments.

hearing impairment, cochlear implants, children

nije evidentirano