Auditory Training and School-Age Children With Cochlear Implants: Addressing Speech Perception and Oral Communication Needs

Forty-four school-age children who had used a multichannel cochlear implant (CI) for at least 4 years were tested to assess their ability to discriminate differences between recorded pairs of female voices uttering sentences. Children were asked to respond “same voice” or “different voice” on each trial. Two conditions were examined. In one condition, the linguistic content of the sentence was always held constant and only the talker's voice varied from trial to trial. In another condition, the linguistic content of the utterance also varied so that to correctly respond “same voice,” the child needed to recognize that Two different sentences were spoken by the same talker. Data from normal-hearing children were used to establish that these tasks were well within the capabilities of children without hearing impairment. For the children with CIs, in the “fixed sentence condition” the mean proportion correct was 68%, which, although significantly different from the 50% score expected by chance, suggests that the children with CIs found this discrimination task rather difficult. In the “varied sentence condition,” however, the mean proportion correct was only 57%, indicating that the children were essentially unable to recognize an unfamiliar talker's voice when the linguistic content of the paired sentences differed. Correlations with other speech and language outcome measures are also reported.

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Managing Communication of Students With Cochlear Implants in Schools for the Deaf: Professional Practices

Communication Disorders Quarterly ◽

10.1177/1525740117730044 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 39 (4) ◽

pp. 451-465

Author(s):

Areti Okalidou ◽

Ioanna Papavassiliou-Alexiou ◽

Christina Zourna ◽

Flora E. Anagnostou

Keyword(s):

Cochlear Implants ◽

Interdisciplinary Approach ◽

School Personnel ◽

Oral Communication ◽

Speech Language Pathologist ◽

Teacher Student ◽

Management Of Technology ◽

Schools For The Deaf ◽

Communication Needs ◽

Current Practices

Despite the trend for mainstreaming children with cochlear implants (CI), a considerable number, either with or without additional disabilities, attend schools for the deaf today. The purpose of this study was to address approaches and practices, interdisciplinary involvement, and challenges within schools for the deaf for managing the communication needs of students with CI. Focused semistructured interviews of school personnel were used for documenting current practices and drawing out areas of concern. Several differences emerged across schools but also between past and current practices in managing the communication of students with CI. These included management of technology, speech–language pathologist (SLP) involvement, instruction models, student regrouping, and modifications in communication mode in teacher–student interchange. Challenges were related to technology, interactions with other professionals and carriers, and reaching the student’s oral communication potential. The importance of an interdisciplinary approach and the school’s orientation are discussed as key factors in the management process.

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Children's Speech Perception in Noise: Evidence for Dissociation From Language and Working Memory

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2018_jslhr-h-17-0312 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 61 (5) ◽

pp. 1294-1305 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Beula M. Magimairaj ◽

Naveen K. Nagaraj ◽

Natalie J. Benafield

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Speech Perception ◽

Large Scale ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

School Age Children ◽

School Age ◽

Normal Range ◽

Language Abilities ◽

Speech Perception In Noise ◽

Attention Memory

Purpose We examined the association between speech perception in noise (SPIN), language abilities, and working memory (WM) capacity in school-age children. Existing studies supporting the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model suggest that WM capacity plays a significant role in adverse listening situations. Method Eighty-three children between the ages of 7 to 11 years participated. The sample represented a continuum of individual differences in attention, memory, and language abilities. All children had normal-range hearing and normal-range nonverbal IQ. Children completed the Bamford–Kowal–Bench Speech-in-Noise Test (BKB-SIN; Etymotic Research, 2005), a selective auditory attention task, and multiple measures of language and WM. Results Partial correlations (controlling for age) showed significant positive associations among attention, memory, and language measures. However, BKB-SIN did not correlate significantly with any of the other measures. Principal component analysis revealed a distinct WM factor and a distinct language factor. BKB-SIN loaded robustly as a distinct 3rd factor with minimal secondary loading from sentence recall and short-term memory. Nonverbal IQ loaded as a 4th factor. Conclusions Results did not support an association between SPIN and WM capacity in children. However, in this study, a single SPIN measure was used. Future studies using multiple SPIN measures are warranted. Evidence from the current study supports the use of BKB-SIN as clinical measure of speech perception ability because it was not influenced by variation in children's language and memory abilities. More large-scale studies in school-age children are needed to replicate the proposed role played by WM in adverse listening situations.

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An Introduction to Cochlear Implant Technology, Activation, and Programming

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/0161-1461(2002/013) ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 33 (3) ◽

pp. 153-161 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jan A. Moore ◽

Holly F. B. Teagle

Keyword(s):

Hearing Loss ◽

Cochlear Implant ◽

Cochlear Implants ◽

Speech Processing ◽

Academic Development ◽

School Age Children ◽

School Age ◽

Technology In The Classroom ◽

Processing Strategies ◽

Cochlear Implant Surgery

Over the last decade, cochlear implantation has become an increasingly viable alternative for the treatment of profound sensorineural hearing loss in children. Although speech and hearing professionals play an important role in the communicative, social, and academic development of children with cochlear implants, many may be unfamiliar with recent advances in implant technology. This article provides an overview of the components of cochlear implant systems and the speech processing strategies that are currently being used by toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children. A brief description of cochlear implant surgery and the procedures for programming these devices are also included. Finally, information regarding the use of assistive listening technology in the classroom is presented.

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Brain event-related potentials to phoneme contrasts and their correlation to reading skills in school-age children

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1177/0165025417728582 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. 357-372 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jarmo Hämäläinen ◽

Nicole Landi ◽

Otto Loberg ◽

Kaisa Lohvansuu ◽

Kenneth Pugh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Speech Perception ◽

Phonological Processing ◽

Reading Skills ◽

Speech Sound ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

School Age Children ◽

School Age ◽

The Us ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Us Children

Development of reading skills has been shown to be tightly linked to phonological processing skills and to some extent to speech perception abilities. Although speech perception is also known to play a role in reading development, it is not clear which processes underlie this connection. Using event-related potentials (ERPs) we investigated the speech processing mechanisms for common and uncommon sound contrasts (/ba/-/da/-/ga/ and /ata/-/at: a/) with respect to the native language of school-age children in Finland and the US. In addition, a comprehensive behavioral test battery of reading and phonological processing was administered. ERPs revealed that the children could discriminate between the speech sound contrasts (place of articulation and phoneme length) regardless of their native language. No differences emerged between the Finnish and US children in their change detection responses. The brain responses to the phoneme length contrast, however, correlated robustly with reading scores in the US children, with larger responses being linked to poorer reading skills. Finnish children also showed correlations between the reading and phonological measures and ERP responses, but the pattern of results was not as clear as for the US children. The results indicate that speech perception is linked to reading skills and this link is more robust for uncommon speech sound contrasts.

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