Multisensory speech perception by profoundly hearing-impaired children.

Four children in Study 1 (ages 5-7 years) and 4 children in Study 2 (ages 8-11 years) received unimodal (tactual) word recognition training with tactual speech perception aids. Two of the subjects in Study 1 were trained with a 2-channel device and 2 with a 16-channel aid. All of the subjects in Study 2 used a 16-channel aid. Following training, subjects were tested on a list containing equal numbers of trained words and of tactually new words in three conditions: (a) aided hearing alone (H), (b) tactual aid alone (TA), and (c) combined (TA + H). Results indicate that subjects performed significantly better in the combined condition on both trained and tactually new words, providing evidence for significant sensory integration following unimodal training.