Mahshie James, Core Cynthia, Larsen Michael D
1Department of Speech and Hearing Science, George Washington University Washington, DC, USA; and 2Department of Statistics, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
Ear Hear. 2015 Nov-Dec;36(6):653-63. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000000181.
The aim of the present research is to examine the relations between auditory perception and production of specific speech contrasts by children with cochlear implants (CIs) who received their implants before 3 years of age and to examine the hierarchy of abilities for perception and production for consonant and vowel features. The following features were examined: vowel height, vowel place, consonant place of articulation (front and back), continuance, and consonant voicing.
Fifteen children (mean age = 4;0 and range 3;2 to 5;11) with a minimum of 18 months of experience with their implants and no additional known disabilities served as participants. Perception of feature contrasts was assessed using a modification of the Online Imitative Speech Pattern Contrast test, which uses imitation to assess speech feature perception. Production was examined by having the children name a series of pictures containing consonant and vowel segments that reflected contrasts of each feature.
For five of the six feature contrasts, production accuracy was higher than perception accuracy. There was also a significant and positive correlation between accuracy of production and auditory perception for each consonant feature. This correlation was not found for vowels, owing largely to the overall high perception and production scores attained on the vowel features. The children perceived vowel feature contrasts more accurately than consonant feature contrasts. On average, the children had lower perception scores for Back Place and Continuance feature contrasts than for Anterior Place and Voicing contrasts. For all features, the median production scores were 100%; the majority of the children were able to accurately and consistently produce the feature contrasts. The mean production scores for features reflect greater score variability for consonant feature production than for vowel features. Back Place of articulation for back consonants and Continuance contrasts appeared to be the most difficult features to produce, as reflected in lower mean production scores for these features.
The finding of greater production than auditory perception accuracy for five of the six features examined suggests that the children with CIs were able to produce articulatory contrasts that were not readily perceived through audition alone. Factors that are likely to play a role in the greater production accuracy in addition to audition include the lexical and phonetic properties of the words elicited, a child's phonological representation of the words and motor abilities, and learning through oro-tactile, visual, proprioceptive, and kinesthetic perception. The differences among the features examined, and between perception and production, point to the clinical importance of evaluating these abilities in children with CIs. The present findings further point to the utility of picture naming to establish a child's production accuracy, which in turn is necessary if using imitation as a measure of auditory capacity.
本研究旨在探讨3岁前接受人工耳蜗植入（CI）的儿童的听觉感知与特定语音对比发音之间的关系，并研究辅音和元音特征的感知与发音能力层次。研究了以下特征：元音高度、元音位置、辅音发音部位（前部和后部）、延续性和辅音浊音。
15名儿童（平均年龄=4岁0个月，范围3岁2个月至5岁11个月）参与研究，他们使用人工耳蜗至少18个月且无其他已知残疾。使用在线模仿语音模式对比测试的修改版评估特征对比的感知，该测试通过模仿来评估语音特征感知。通过让儿童说出一系列包含反映每个特征对比的辅音和元音片段的图片来检查发音情况。
在六个特征对比中的五个方面，发音准确性高于感知准确性。每个辅音特征的发音准确性与听觉感知之间也存在显著正相关。元音方面未发现这种相关性，这主要是因为在元音特征上获得的总体感知和发音分数较高。儿童对元音特征对比的感知比对辅音特征对比的感知更准确。平均而言，儿童对后部发音部位和延续性特征对比的感知分数低于对前部发音部位和浊音对比的感知分数。对于所有特征，发音分数中位数为100%；大多数儿童能够准确且一致地发出特征对比。特征的平均发音分数反映出辅音特征发音的分数变异性大于元音特征。后辅音的后部发音部位和延续性对比似乎是最难发出的特征，这些特征的平均发音分数较低即反映了这一点。
在所研究的六个特征中的五个特征上，发音准确性高于听觉感知准确性这一发现表明，人工耳蜗植入儿童能够发出仅通过听觉不易察觉的发音对比。除了听觉之外，可能在更高的发音准确性中起作用的因素包括所引出单词的词汇和语音属性、儿童对单词的语音表征和运动能力，以及通过口腔触觉、视觉、本体感觉和动觉感知进行的学习。所研究特征之间以及感知与发音之间的差异表明，评估人工耳蜗植入儿童的这些能力具有临床重要性。本研究结果进一步表明图片命名对于确定儿童发音准确性的实用性，而如果将模仿用作听觉能力的衡量标准，发音准确性又是必要的。
