Cross Language Perception of Voicing in Children With Hearing Impairment

Abstract

The present study was designed to evaluate the discrimination of stop consonant voicing in children with hearing impairment who were exposed to different regional languages (Kannada and Malayalam). Eighteen children with hearing impairment (10 Kannada speaking children and 8 Malayalam speaking children) with moderate to moderately severe degree of sensorineural hearing loss were evaluated. The results indicated that perception of voicing was significantly better for the Kannada speaking children with hearing impairment compared to the Malayalam speaking children with hearing impairment. This was observed irrespective of the place of articulation where the stop occurred (bilabial, dental, retroflex and palatal), the vowel along with which it was produced (\a\, \i\ and \u\) and the position (initial and medial)