Moein Narges, Khoddami Seyyedeh Maryam, Shahbodaghi Mohammad Rahim
Department of Speech and Language Pathology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Speech, Language Pathology, Faculty of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2017 Oct;101:1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2017.07.018. Epub 2017 Jul 18.
Cochlear implant prosthesis facilitates spoken language development and speech comprehension in children with severe-profound hearing loss. However, this prosthesis is limited in encoding information about fundamental frequency and pitch that are essentially for recognition of speech prosody. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the perception and production of intonation in cochlear implant children and comparison with normal hearing children.
This study carried out on 25 cochlear implanted children and 50 children with normal hearing. First, using 10 action pictures statements and questions sentences were extracted. Fundamental frequency and pitch changes were identified using Praat software. Then, these sentences were judged by 7 adult listeners. In second stage 20 sentences were played for child and he/she determined whether it was in a question form or statement one.
Performance of cochlear implanted children in perception and production of intonation was significantly lower than children with normal hearing. The difference between fundamental frequency and pitch changes in cochlear implanted children and children with normal hearing was significant (P < 0/05). Cochlear implanted children performance in perception and production of intonation has significant correlation with child's age surgery and duration of prosthesis use (P < 0/05).
The findings of the current study show that cochlear prostheses have limited application in facilitating the perception and production of intonation in cochlear implanted children. It should be noted that the child's age at the surgery and duration of prosthesis's use is important in reduction of this limitation. According to these findings, speech and language pathologists should consider intervention of intonation in treatment program of cochlear implanted children.
人工耳蜗有助于重度至极重度听力损失儿童的口语发展和言语理解。然而，这种假体在编码有关基频和音高的信息方面存在局限性，而这些信息对于识别言语韵律至关重要。本研究的目的是调查人工耳蜗植入儿童的语调感知和产出情况，并与正常听力儿童进行比较。
本研究对25名人工耳蜗植入儿童和50名正常听力儿童进行。首先，使用10张动作图片提取陈述句和疑问句。使用Praat软件识别基频和音高变化。然后，由7名成年听众对这些句子进行判断。在第二阶段，向儿童播放20个句子，让他/她判断是疑问句还是陈述句。
人工耳蜗植入儿童在语调感知和产出方面的表现明显低于正常听力儿童。人工耳蜗植入儿童与正常听力儿童在基频和音高变化方面的差异具有统计学意义（P<0.05）。人工耳蜗植入儿童在语调感知和产出方面的表现与儿童的年龄、手术时间和假体使用时长具有显著相关性（P<0.05）。
本研究结果表明，人工耳蜗在促进人工耳蜗植入儿童的语调感知和产出方面应用有限。应该注意的是，手术时儿童的年龄和假体使用时长对于减少这种局限性很重要。根据这些发现，言语和语言病理学家在人工耳蜗植入儿童的治疗方案中应考虑语调干预。
