Recognition of Spanish consonants in 8-talker babble by children with cochlear implants, and by children and adults with normal hearing.

This paper presents the results of closed-set recognition task for 80 Spanish consonant-vowel sounds in 8-talker babble. Three groups of subjects participated in the study: a group of children using cochlear implants (CIs; age range: 7-13), an age-matched group of children with normal hearing (NH), and a group of adults with NH. The speech-to-noise ratios at which the participants recognized 33% of the target consonants were +7.8 dB, -3 dB, and -6 dB, respectively. In order to clarify the qualitative differences between the groups, groups were matched for the percentage of recognized syllables. As compared with the two groups with NH, the children with CIs: (1) produced few "I do not know" responses; (2) frequently selected the voiced stops (i.e., /b, d, ɡ/) and the most energetic consonants (i.e., /l, r, ʝ, s, ʧ/); (3) showed no vowel context effects; and (4) had a robust voicing bias. As compared with the adults with NH, both groups of children showed a fronting bias in place of articulation errors. The factors underlying these error patterns are discussed.

Sensitive periods and language in cochlear implant users.

This study explores the hypothesis that the existence of a short sensitive period for lower-level speech perception/articulation skills, and a long one for higher-level language skills, may partly explain the language outcomes of children with cochlear implants (CIs). The participants were fourteen children fitted with a CI before their second birthday. Data about their language skills and the environmental conditions (e.g. Family Involvement in rehabilitation) were obtained over a period of three years. Age at implantation correlated exclusively with the ratio of errors of place of articulation, a phonological feature for which CIs provide insufficient information. The degree of Family Involvement was significantly correlated with the remaining language measures. We conclude that small plasticity reductions affecting lower-level skills may partly explain the difficulties of some CI users in developing language.

Prueba repetición de oraciones para niños de 24 a 48 meses (PRO-24). Estudio piloto con niños típicos y niños sordos con implante coclear / A sentence repetition test for children aged 24-48 months (PRO-24). Pilot study in children with normal hearing and deaf children with a cochlear implant

Se presenta la prueba de repetición de oraciones PRO-24 para niños típicos de entre 24 y 48 meses de edad. Dos estudios analizan el interés de la prueba. El primer estudio explora el rendimiento de un grupo de 18 niños típicos de entre 26 y 40 meses. Los resultados muestran que hay una correlación muy alta con la edad y que las dificultades aumentan especialmente en función de la carga fonológica y semántica. El análisis cualitativo muestra que aparecen errores gramaticales propios de esa franja de edad como son los protoartículos en los más pequeños o las generalizaciones morfológicas. El segundo estudio analiza los resultados de un grupo de 10 niños sordos profundos que han recibido un implante coclear entre los 12 y los 24 meses. La edad auditiva oscila entre los 30 y los 42 meses. Se obtiene además una muestra de lenguaje espontáneo. La puntuación directa en repetición es muy baja y 5 niños no tienen ningún acierto. Sin embargo, se observa que la longitud media de enunciados en repetición se correlaciona de manera significativa con la misma medida en el lenguaje espontáneo. Otros datos confirman el paralelismo entre ambas pruebas. La repetición de oraciones y la prueba PRO-24 en particular tienen gran interés como instrumento de evaluación y de investigación sobre el desarrollo lingüístico en este periodo inicial (AU)

This article describes a sentence repetition task, the PRO-24, designed for use in children with normal development, aged between 24 and 48 months. The potential usefulness of the PRO-24 was analyzed in two distinct studies. The first study was carried out in 18 typically developing children whose chronological ages ranged between 26 and 40 months. A strong correlation was found between chronological age and the PRO-24 score. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the main predictors of success in repeating each sentence were the number of syllables in a sentence, followed by the number of content words. Qualitative analysis revealed that the children made errors typical for their age, commonly observed in spontaneous language (e.g., protoarticles, morphological generalizations, omissions of unstressed words, etc.). The second analysis evaluated the results of a group of 10 deaf children with a cochlear implant (CI). Age at CI implantation was between 12 and 24 months. The time of implant use ranged between 30 and 42 months. A sample of spontaneous language was obtained from each child. Most CI users scored very poorly in the PRO-24. Five children scored zero. However, the mean length of utterance in the PRO-24 was significantly correlated with that in spontaneous language. Other data confirmed the close parallelism between the data sets. We conclude that the PRO-24 score is a true reflection of a child's command of productive language. Consequently, this task is potentially useful in evaluation of early language development and research in this field (AU)