Blog Archives
Peer Interactions of Preschool Children With and Without Hearing Loss
Conclusions: Preschool children with SPHL were excluded from interactions by their playmates. Having age-appropriate language skills did not ensure successful peer interactions. Inclusive preschool programs may consider offering classroom-wide social skills training to enhance interaction opportunities.
Facial expression recognition: Can preschoolers with cochlear implants and hearing aids catch it?
Tager-Flusberg and Sullivan (2000) presented a cognitive model of theory of mind (ToM), in which they thought ToM included two components––a social–perceptual component and a social–cognitive component. Facial expression recognition (FER) is an ability tapping the social–perceptual component. Previous findings suggested that normal hearing children did not demonstrate any advantage over those with cochlear implants (CI) or hearing aids (HA) in FER with age and gender matched. In these studies, the ages of the participants with CI or HA were over 7 years old. However, normal hearing preschoolers can accurately recognize basic facial expressions. Children’s early FER skills are essential to later successful social interactions. It is not clear whether preschoolers with CI or HA have problems in FER. Two experiments were conducted to compare the FER of preschoolers with CI or HA with normal hearing children (with age matched). The results of both experiments consistently showed that normal hearing children performed significantly better than those with CI or HA, suggesting to some extent that there was a delay in preschoolers with CI or HA on FER. No significant correlations (with age and type of participants controlled) were found between language ability (measured by PPVT) and FER in Experiment 2, to some extent validating a cognitive model of ToM in another view. The findings suggested that earlier rehabilitation for children with CI or HA should include not only language treatment but also emotional intervention, which would help them catch up with normal hearings as soon as possible.
Complications and clinical analysis of 416 consecutive cochlear implantations
Conclusions
Although cochlear implantation is popular, it is essential to decrease the incidence of complications.
from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
The Effects of Age and Infant Hearing Status on Maternal Use of Prosodic Cues for Clause Boundaries in Speech
Conclusions: The results suggest that acoustic cues correlated with clause boundaries are available in maternal speech to HI infants. Their exaggeration relative to adult-directed speech suggests that mothers’ use of infant-directed speech is a natural behavior regardless of infant hearing status. Finally, mothers modify speech prosody according to their children’s age and hearing experience.
Weighting of cues for fricative place of articulation perception by children wearing cochlear implants
Conclusions: Children wearing a cochlear implant use similar cue-weighting strategies as normal listeners (i.e. all apply more weight to the frication noise than to the transition cue), but may have limitations in processing formant transitions and in cue interaction.
from the International Journal of Audiology
Longitudinal Infant Speech Perception in Young Cochlear Implant Users
Conclusions:
The CI users in this case study, who were implanted between 12 and 16 mo of age, were able to master the phoneme contrasts regardless of bilateral or unilateral CI, socioeconomic status, or language spoken at home.
Evaluation of Different Signal Processing Options in Unilateral and Bilateral Cochlear Freedom Implant Recipients Using R-SpaceTM Background Noise
The results of this study suggest that the use of processing options that utilize noise reduction, like those available in ASC and BEAM, improve a CI recipient’s ability to understand speech in noise in listening situations similar to those experienced in the real world. The choice of the best processing option is dependent on the noise level, with BEAM best at moderate noise levels and ASC best at loud noise levels for unilateral CI recipients. Therefore, multiple noise programs or a combination of processing options may be necessary to provide CI users with the best performance in a variety of listening situations.
Assessing Multimodal Spoken Word-in-Sentence Recognition in Children With Normal Hearing and Children With Cochlear Implants
Conclusions: The results suggest that children’s audiovisual word-in-sentence recognition can be assessed using the materials developed for this investigation. With further development, the materials hold promise for becoming a test of multimodal sentence recognition for children with hearing loss.
Effects of fine structure and extended low frequencies in pediatric cochlear implant recipients
Conclusions
The present study clearly shows that children benefit from the fine structure speech coding strategy in combination with an extended frequency spectrum in the low frequencies, as is offered by the Opus speech processors. This should be taken into consideration when fitting pre- and perilingually deaf children implanted almost a decade previously.
from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
Acoustic Cues for Consonant Perception with Combined Acoustic and Electric Hearing in Children
Many children who use a cochlear implant in one ear have usable residual hearing in the opposite ear. There is consensus that bilateral stimulation should be provided to these children by fitting a hearing aid in the nonimplanted ear. The combination of acoustic amplification via a hearing aid with electrical stimulation via a cochlear implant is commonly referred to as “bimodal hearing.” This article examines speech perceptual benefits associated with the use of bimodal hearing in children. First, a brief description of the acoustic basis for phonetic contrasts is provided. Second, information on children’s consonant perception and information transmission via the use of cochlear implants with or without hearing aids is presented. Finally, a summary of fitting strategies is presented with validation results. These results support the optimization of a hearing aid with a cochlear implant for children.
from Seminars in Hearing
The influence of parents’ speech on the development of spoken language in German-speaking children with cochlear implants
The present study examines the effect of parents’ language input on the linguistic progress of children with cochlear implants. Participants were 21 children with cochlear implants and their mothers. Age at implantation ranged between 14 and 46 months. The study was longitudinal with data collections every 4½ months for a period of 27 months. Spontaneous speech in a free play situation with a parent was recorded at each data point. Children’s grammar was measured in terms of Men Length of Utterance (MLU) and the use of noun plurals, verb markings, and case and gender markings on articles. Mothers’ child-directed speech was analysed in terms of MLU, self-repetitions and expansions. Time-lagged correlational analyses were performed relating properties of maternal speech at an earlier data point —while controlling for the child’s language level at this data point— to child language at subsequent data points. The results showed that maternal MLU and expansions are positively related to child linguistic progress. Higher maternal MLU and more expansions are related to higher child MLU subsequently. More specifically, expansions of specific grammatical structures are related to an increased correct use of these structures by the child subsequently. This was the case particularly for case and gender marking on articles, but also for noun plurals and verb markings. Maternal self-repetitions were negatively related to child progress in grammar. The results demonstrate an effect on mothers’ language input on the linguistic progress of young children with cochlear implants. Rich language input leads to better language growth.
Development of an auditory implant manipulator for minimally invasive surgical insertion of implantable hearing devices
Although system improvements are necessary, our preliminary results indicate that the auditory implant manipulator has the potential to perform keyhole insertion of implantable hearing devices.
from the Journal of Laryngology and Otology
A comparison of the speech recognition and pitch ranking abilities of children using a unilateral cochlear implant, bimodal stimulation or bilateral hearing aids
Conclusions
Contrary to findings in postlingually deafened adults, we found no significant bimodal advantage for pitch perception in prelingually deafened children. However, the performance of children using electrical stimulation was significantly poorer than children using only acoustic stimulation. Further research is required to investigate the contribution of the non-implanted ears of users of BMS to pitch perception, and the effect of hearing loss on the development of pitch perception in children.
from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
A new measurement tool for speech development based on Ling’s stages of speech acquisition in pediatric cochlear implant recipients
Conclusions
The K-Ling was a valid evaluation tool regarding speech development in young children who are using CI and who are in the early stages of speech development. Longitudinal assessments of phonetic and phonologic developments may be attainable in young children using the K-Ling.
from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
Use of Acoustic Cues by Children With Cochlear Implants
Despite their different auditory input, children with a CI appear to be able to use many acoustic cues effectively in speech perception. Most importantly, children with a CI and normal-hearing children were observed to use similar cue-weighting patterns.
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