Sensitivity of fine-grained phonetic variation in children who use cochlear implants

Previous studies have found that post-lingually deaf adults with cochlear implants (CIs) generally have good phonemic categorization abilities, but performance can be fragile. Few studies have examined phonemic categorization in pre-lingually deafened children with CIs. This study asks if children who use CIs perceive fine-grained acoustic differences within a category. Next, assuming differences are perceived, we ask if they do so in a manner similar to adults with CIs, and how these patterns change over the course of adolescent development. This study employed an eye-tracking paradigm to examine perception of voicing and fricative place of articulation in children with CIs. In previous speech categorization experiments, adult CI users typically demonstrate shallower identification functions, which is interpreted as a useful method of adaptation to uncertainty. Participants ranged in age from 11 to 18 and included 17 CI users and 31 age-matched normal hearing (NH) peers. Children heard a token from either a b/p or s/ʃ continua (eight steps) spanning two words (bear/pear, sip/ship), and selected the corresponding picture from a screen containing pictures of all four words. Eye movements were monitored while they performed this task to measure how strongly each word was considered over time. Mouse-click results (phoneme identification) for voicing demonstrated evidence for shallower slopes in CI users for both voicing and fricative continua. With respect to fixations, the CI users showed a less gradient effect of rStep to the competitor. Additionally, the CI users demonstrated minimal activation of competitors. These results suggest that children with CIs may adapt a wait and see approach, suppressing competitor activation and waiting to begin lexical access until substantial information has been accumulated

Perceptual Learning of Uncategorized Arabic Phonemes Among Congenitally Deaf, Non-native Children with Cochlear Implants

The advancement in cochlear implant (CI) technologies and how CIs help their users have far exceeded expectations. Speech perception remains the focus of many studies related to cochlear implant clinical research to ensure the technology maximizes the benefits to be obtained by CI users. This chapter will discuss the perception of non-native sounds among congenitally deaf pediatric CI users, specifically emphasizing Arabic consonants. This language is used and learned by billions of non-native Arabs worldwide. Non-native auditory signals are perceived differently by children with CI due to speech processor signal processing and native language learning effects. This study measured the perceptual learning of uncategorized-dispersed-assimilated Arabic consonants for a group of non-native children with CI using a newly developed, FizBil© bottom-up, customized software training module. The framework and hypothetical pathway will be discussed

Phonological Process Use in the Speech of Children Fitted With Cochlear Implants

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the use of both developmental and non-developmental phonological processes in a group of young children using cochlear implants. Participants: 6 preschool children with severe to profound binaural hearing loss with cochlear implants Method: 15-25 minute conversational speech samples from six children were collected at three-month intervals over a period of 12-21 months for a prior study. These samples were then transcribed and analyzed using Natural Phonological Analysis (NPA) and a data collection form created solely for the purpose of this study. Data Analysis: Pearson correlations were used to determine relationships among the variables. Z-scores were also used to make comparisons with the available normative data. Results: Possible explanations for the use of developmental as well as non-developmental processes in this population are discussed. These results have implications for the assessment and clinical treatment of phonological errors in the speech of children with cochlear implants

Vowels production by Cantonese-speaking children with cochlear implant

"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, 30th June, 2010."Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-32).Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2010.This study investigated vowels production by Cantonese-speaking children with cochlear implant. Nineteen subjects with cochlear implant age ranged 2;05 to 6;01 years old were compared to 19 hearing children. All participants were required to produce 51 words, covering seven Cantonese monophthongs /a, i, E, O, u, y, J/ and ten Cantonese diphthongs /ui, Oi, ai, iu, Ey, Ai, ou, ei, au, Au/. The production accuracy was compared. Error patterns were investigated by phonological process and acoustic analysis. The production accuracy from cochlear implant subjects with hearing experience less than two years was significantly different than that of hearing children with similar hearing experience. A developmental and universal phonological acquisition process was observed. Developmental phonological rules were found in erroneous production. Articulatory complexity played an important role in vowels acquisition in CI groups. The result demonstrated a positive influence of cochlear implant on vowels production in Cantonese-speaking children.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Allophonic Perception in Dyslexia: An overview

Allophonic theory claims that people affected by dyslexia perceive speech with allophonic rather than phonemic units. After a reminder about the featural theory of speech perception, the evidence supporting the allophonic theory is summarized. The difference between allophonic perception and reduced phoneme perception acuity is emphasized, the latter being a common characteristic of various troubles of language development and is thus not specific to dyslexia. Taking account of this fundamental difference, the counter-evidence against allophonic theory is examined and proposals for future testing and remediation are formulated.La teoría alofónica defiende que las personas afectadas por dislexia perciben el habla mediante unidades alofónicas en lugar de unidades fonémicas. Después de revisar la teoría de rasgos de la percepción del habla se presenta un resumen de la evidencia que apoya la teoría alofónica. Se enfatiza la diferencia entre la percepción alofónica y la reducción de la agudeza en la percepción de fonemas, siendo esta última una característica común en muchos problemas de desarrollo del lenguaje y, por tanto, no específica de la dislexia. Teniendo en cuenta esta diferencia fundamental, se examina la evidencia contraria a la teoría alofónica y se formulan propuestas para futuras evaluaciones e intervenciones

Perception of vowels and diphthongs by hearing-impaired Cantonese-speaking children with cochlear implants

Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-30).Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2010."A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2010."This study investigated the perception of vowels and diphthongs perception of congenital profound bilateral hearing impaired children with cochlear implants (CI). The CI children’s age was ranged from 2:04 to 6:01, and nine CI children were matched with nine hearing children. A closed-set speech perception task was administrated. High-front vowel was found to be the easiest vowel to be perceived, due to the greatest perception difference in the first two formant frequency. The perception of diphthongs was related to their feature complexity. Diphthongs with feature complexity 1 and 2 were easiest to be perceived, while diphthongs with feature complexity 3 and 4 were more difficult to be perceived. With two year duration of cochlear implantation, CI children could catch up with normal hearing children in their perception of vowels and diphthongs. To conclude, cochlear implants helped children with profound hearing loss in the perception of vowels and diphthongs.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Adult cochlear implant users versus typical hearing persons: an automatic analysis of acoustic–prosodic pparameters

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the speech prosody of postlingually deaf cochlear implant (CI) users compared with control speakers without hearing or speech impairment. Method: Speech recordings of 74 CI users (37 males and 37 females) and 72 age-balanced control speakers (36 males and 36 females) are considered. All participants are German native speakers and read Der Nordwind und die Sonne (The North Wind and the Sun), a standard text in pathological speech analysis and phonetic transcriptions. Automatic acoustic analysis is performed considering pitch, loudness, and duration features, including speech rate and rhythm. Results: In general, duration and rhythm features differ between CI users and control speakers. CI users read slower and have a lower voiced segment ratio compared with control speakers. A lower voiced ratio goes along with a prolongation of the voiced segments' duration in male and with a prolongation of pauses in female CI users. Rhythm features in CI users have higher variability in the duration of vowels and consonants than in control speakers. The use of bilateral CIs showed no advantages concerning speech prosody features in comparison to unilateral use of CI. Conclusions: Even after cochlear implantation and rehabilitation, the speech of postlingually deaf adults deviates from the speech of control speakers, which might be due to changed auditory feedback. We suggest considering changes in temporal aspects of speech in future rehabilitation strategies