| dc.description.abstract | A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically-inserted prosthetic hearing device that helps
to restore auditory functioning in deaf people. Hearing loss before the onset of
language has been shown to have a deleterious effect on speech and language
development in children. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to develop
effective clinical interventions for deaf children. However, no specific language test
exists that can fully characterize how children with a CI develop the perception of
spoken language. The tests currently used in clinics are speech tests that usually
fail to capture the complexity of language and its development. There is not a test
which fully captures the complexity of language. Therefore, we need to develop
specific comprehension tests for children with a CI. In order to create such a test, it
is first necessary to determine the level of speech and language proficiencies of
children with a CI, how these children differ from non-hearing-impaired children,
and how they develop over time.
This study is the first component of a longitudinal study which will monitor
CI children with respect to their hearing levels, their speech and linguistic skills,
and their cognitive development. In this first study, we will focus on a specific
linguistic phenomenon, namely the Delay of Principle B Effect (DPBE). The inability
to correctly interpret pronouns and reflexives seems to be a good indicator of
atypical or delayed language development. Moreover, this ability can be tested in a
relatively short time. Therefore, we hypothesize that the interpretation of
pronouns and reflexives could be useful tools to monitor language development in
CI children.
In this study, ten CI children were tested using a picture verification task.
Ten age- and gender-matched non-hearing-impaired children (NHI) served as the
control group. Children with and without a CI, between the ages of 5 and 13 years
were chosen, as previous research shows that this is the range during which
pronouns and reflexives should be fully acquired (Başkent et al., in press). We have
raised the upper limit of the age range because we expected delay with these
milestones amongst the CI children. Two different speech rates (normal and
slowed) were used (van Rij et al. 2010), as children with a CI may benefit from a
slower speech rate.
We hypothesized that children with a CI and non-hearing impaired (NHI)
children will have different milestones in the perception of reflexives and
pronouns. The results confirmed this hypothesis. In identifying pronouns and
reflexives, children with a CI made more mistakes than did NHI children. This
supports the first hypothesis.
In earlier research, van Rij et al. (2010) concluded that children between
the ages of 5 and 6;3 years benefited from a slower speech rate in the
perception/comprehension of pronouns. Based on this finding, we hypothesized
that a slower speech rate would have a positive effect on the pronoun
comprehension score. In this study, contrary to what we expected, the children’s
pronoun comprehension did not improve when a slower speech rate was used.
Rather, the scores of tests using a slower speech rate were lower. The test scores in
the normal speech rate condition were much better. However, we should
acknowledge that the slowed speech samples sounded very unnatural, and this
perhaps contributed to poorer performance in general. Because of the lower scores
on the test using a slower speech rate, the second hypothesis is falsified?
In conclusion, based on the comprehension test, we can state that children
with a CI have delayed milestones in comprehension of pronouns and reflexives
compared to NHI children. In interpreting pronouns and reflexives, children with a
CI make more mistakes than do NHI children. The children do not benefit from a
slower speech rate with pronouns interpretation. The clinical instrument seems to
be a good test to use; however, a larger group needs to be tested in order to
provide more reliable results and a more specific overview of how children with a
CI develop linguistic skills.
A recommendation for further research is to make the slowed-down speech
sound more natural, so that the children are/can be tested in comparable
circumstances. I would also recommend that researchers search for more tests
that measure specific language and literacy difficulties over a wider age range. | |
