Schauwers Karen, Gillis Steven, Govaerts Paul J
CNTS - Department of Linguistics, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
Ear Hear. 2008 Aug;29(4):627-37. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0b013e318174f03c.
To compare the characteristics of prelexical babbling of 10 deaf children, who received a cochlear implant (CI) between 5 and 20 mo of age with that of hearing children.
Prospective controlled longitudinal trial comparing 10 congenitally deaf children of hearing parents, who received a multichannel Nucleus-24 CI in their first or second year of life with 10 normal-hearing (NH) children. During the entire babbling period, monthly video samples of 20 min were selected and transcribed. The characteristics of babbling were investigated at three levels: (1) segmentally by means of inventories of consonant (C) and vowel (V) types, (2) intrasyllabically by assessing preferred consonant-vowel (CV) combinations, and (3) intersyllabically by assessing reduplication and variegation of successive CV syllables.
(1) Segmental analysis - no statistical difference: both groups preferred to produce coronals and labials with regard to C place, and stops and glides with regard to C manner. Mid-front and mid-central vowels were the predominant V types in both groups. (2) Intrasyllabic analysis - no statistical difference: both groups preferred to combine coronal Cs with front vowels (Vs) and labial Cs with back Vs, and disliked coronal-back and labial-front CV combinations. These four significant CV combinations, however, emerged earlier in the babbling period of NH group than that of CI children. (3) Intersyllabic analysis: in comparison with the NH group, the CI children used significantly less variegated CVCV and in case of variegation, the proportion of combined C + V variegations was significantly lower. In case of C variegations, complex C variegations (manner + place) occurred considerably less frequently in the babbling of the CI children in comparison with that of the NH children (although this difference was not statistically significant).
This study shows that the qualitative babbling characteristics of early implanted CI children are very similar to those of hearing children from the onset of babbling onward. Only when combining CV syllables into CVCV utterances, CI children prefer simplicity to complexity in comparison with hearing children.
比较10名在5至20个月大时接受人工耳蜗植入（CI）的聋儿与听力正常儿童的前语言咿呀学语特征。
前瞻性对照纵向试验，比较10名先天性聋儿（其听力正常的父母在其出生后第一年或第二年为其植入多通道Nucleus - 24人工耳蜗）与10名听力正常（NH）儿童。在整个咿呀学语期，每月选取20分钟的视频样本并进行转录。从三个层面研究咿呀学语的特征：（1）通过辅音（C）和元音（V）类型清单进行音段层面分析；（2）通过评估偏好的辅音 - 元音（CV）组合进行音节内分析；（3）通过评估连续CV音节的重复和多样化进行音节间分析。
（1）音段分析 - 无统计学差异：两组在辅音发音部位方面都更倾向于发出舌尖音和唇音，在辅音发音方式方面都更倾向于塞音和滑音。两组中前中元音和中中元音都是主要的元音类型。（2）音节内分析 - 无统计学差异：两组都更倾向于将舌尖辅音与前元音组合，将唇辅音与后元音组合，并且不喜欢舌尖 - 后元音和唇 - 前元音的CV组合。然而，这四种显著的CV组合在听力正常组的咿呀学语期比人工耳蜗植入儿童出现得更早。（3）音节间分析：与听力正常组相比，人工耳蜗植入儿童使用的多样化CVCV显著更少，并且在多样化的情况下，组合的辅音 + 元音多样化的比例显著更低。在辅音多样化的情况下，与听力正常儿童相比，人工耳蜗植入儿童在咿呀学语时复杂的辅音多样化（发音方式 + 发音部位）出现的频率要低得多（尽管这种差异没有统计学意义）。
本研究表明，早期植入人工耳蜗的儿童从咿呀学语开始时起，其咿呀学语的定性特征与听力正常儿童非常相似。只有在将CV音节组合成CVCV话语时，与听力正常儿童相比，人工耳蜗植入儿童更喜欢简单而非复杂。
