Chin Steven B, Tsai Patrick L, Gao Sujuan
Indiana University School of Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, 699 West Drive, RR044, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5119, USA.
Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2003 Nov;12(4):440-51. doi: 10.1044/1058-0360(2003/090).
The objective of this study was to compare the connected speech intelligibility of children who use cochlear implants with that of children who have normal hearing. Previous research has shown that speech intelligibility improves from before cochlear implantation to after implantation and that the speech intelligibility of children who use cochlear implants compares favorably with that of children who use conventional hearing aids. However, no research has yet addressed the question of how the speech intelligibility of children who use cochlear implants compares to that of children with normal hearing. In the current study, archival data on connected speech intelligibility from 51 children with cochlear implants were compared with newly collected data from 47 children with normal hearing. Results showed that for children with cochlear implants, greater intelligibility was associated with both increased chronological age and increased duration of cochlear implant use. Consistent with previous studies, children with normal hearing achieved adult-like or near-adult-like intelligibility around the age of 4 years, but a similar peak in intelligibility was not observed for the children who used cochlear implants. On the whole, children with cochlear implants were significantly less intelligible than children with normal hearing, when controlling both for chronological age and for length of auditory experience. These results have implications for the socialization and education of children with cochlear implants, particularly with respect to on-time placement in mainstream educational environments with age peers.
本研究的目的是比较使用人工耳蜗的儿童与听力正常儿童的连贯言语可懂度。先前的研究表明，言语可懂度从人工耳蜗植入前到植入后有所提高，并且使用人工耳蜗的儿童的言语可懂度与使用传统助听器的儿童相比更具优势。然而，尚无研究探讨使用人工耳蜗的儿童的言语可懂度与听力正常儿童的言语可懂度相比情况如何。在当前研究中，将51名使用人工耳蜗儿童的连贯言语可懂度存档数据与47名听力正常儿童新收集的数据进行了比较。结果显示，对于使用人工耳蜗的儿童，更高的可懂度与实际年龄增加和人工耳蜗使用时间延长均相关。与先前研究一致，听力正常的儿童在4岁左右达到成人般或接近成人般的可懂度，但使用人工耳蜗的儿童未观察到类似的可懂度峰值。总体而言，在控制实际年龄和听觉经验时长后，使用人工耳蜗的儿童的可懂度明显低于听力正常的儿童。这些结果对人工耳蜗植入儿童的社交和教育具有启示意义，特别是在及时安置到与同龄人一起的主流教育环境方面。
