A Comparison of Acoustic Charateristics of Speech in Young Cochlear Implant and BTE Users with Normal Hearing Age-Matched Individuals

Abstract

A major consequence of hearing impairment in children appears to be a reduced repertoire of sound segments mainly consonants which results in place, manner and voicing errors leading to poor communication. With advancement in technology (cochlear implants and programmable digital behind the ear devices), significant progress have been made by children with profound hearing impairment. Cochlear implant (CI) aims to improve the speech perception and production abilities in individuals who receive limited gain from the conventional amplification devices. The primary aim of the present study was to compare selected acoustic speech parameters (lead and lag Voice Onset Time, word and vowel duration and second formant frequency) of children with hearing impairment using cochlear implants, Behind The Ear (BTE) hearing aids with those of age matched normal hearing peers. Results indicated that, the mean lead Voice Onset Time (VOT) in CI and BTE users was longer compared to normal hearing individuals, though not statistically significant. Results of lag VOT indicate that mean values for the CI and BTE groups were shorter than normal hearing individuals. Measures of F2 revealed that CI group had higher F2 where as the BTE users had lower F2 values compared to normal hearing individuals. Among the duration measures only vowel duration was significantly different between normal hearing individuals and CI. Though several studies report that acoustic measures of the speech of cochlear implantees approximate normal values, similar findings were not obtained in the present study, probably because the cochlear implantees in this study were implanted only six months prior to data collection.