Kawar Khaloob, Kishon-Rabin Liat, Segal Osnat
Department of Special Education, Beit Berl College, Kfar Saba, Israel.
Department of Communication Disorders, Steyer School of Health Professions, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2022 May 11;65(5):2029-2046. doi: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-21-00296. Epub 2022 Apr 26.
Processing narrow focus (NF), the stressed word in the sentence, includes both the perceptual ability to identify the stressed word in the sentence and the pragmatic-semantic ability to comprehend the nonexplicit linguistic message. NF and its underlying meaning can be conveyed only via the auditory modality. Therefore, NF can be considered as a measure for assessing the efficacy of the hearing aid (HA) and cochlear implants (CIs) for acquiring nonexplicit language skills. The purpose of this study was to assess identification and comprehension of NF by HA and CI users who are native speakers of Arabic and to associate NF outcomes with speech perception and cognitive and linguistic abilities.
A total of 46 adolescents (age range: 11;2-18;8) participated: 18 with moderate-to-severe hearing loss who used HAs, 10 with severe-to-profound hearing loss who used CIs, and 18 with typical hearing (TH). Test materials included the Arabic Narrow Focus Test (ANFT), which includes three subtests assessing identification (ANFT1), comprehension of NF in simple four-word sentences (ANFT2), and longer sentences with a construction list at the clause or noun phrase level (ANFT3). In addition, speech perception, vocabulary, and working memory were assessed.
All the participants successfully identified the word carrying NF, with no significant difference between the groups. Comprehension of NF in ANFT2 and ANFT3 was reduced for HA and CI users compared with TH peers, and speech perception, hearing status, and memory for digits predicted the variability in the overall results of ANFT1, ANFT2, and ANFT3, respectively.
Arabic speakers who used HAs or CIs were able to identify NF successfully, suggesting that the acoustic cues were perceptually available to them. However, HA and CI users had considerable difficulty in understanding NF. Different factors may contribute to this difficulty, including the memory load during the task as well as pragmatic-linguistic knowledge on the possible meanings of NF.
处理句子中的窄焦点（NF），即句子中的重读词，既包括识别句子中重读词的感知能力，也包括理解非显性语言信息的语用 - 语义能力。窄焦点及其潜在含义只能通过听觉通道来传达。因此，窄焦点可被视为一种评估助听器（HA）和人工耳蜗（CI）获取非显性语言技能效果的指标。本研究的目的是评估以阿拉伯语为母语的助听器和人工耳蜗使用者对窄焦点的识别和理解能力，并将窄焦点测试结果与言语感知、认知和语言能力相关联。
共有46名青少年（年龄范围：11岁2个月至18岁8个月）参与：18名中度至重度听力损失患者使用助听器，10名重度至极重度听力损失患者使用人工耳蜗，18名听力正常（TH）者。测试材料包括阿拉伯语窄焦点测试（ANFT），该测试包括三个子测试，分别评估识别能力（ANFT1）、对简单四字句子中窄焦点的理解（ANFT2）以及从句或名词短语层面带有结构列表的较长句子中窄焦点的理解（ANFT3）。此外，还评估了言语感知、词汇和工作记忆。
所有参与者都成功识别了带有窄焦点的单词，各组之间无显著差异。与听力正常的同龄人相比，助听器和人工耳蜗使用者在ANFT2和ANFT3中对窄焦点的理解有所下降，言语感知、听力状况和数字记忆分别预测了ANFT1、ANFT2和ANFT3总体结果的变异性。
使用助听器或人工耳蜗的阿拉伯语使用者能够成功识别窄焦点，这表明声学线索对他们来说在感知上是可用的。然而，助听器和人工耳蜗使用者在理解窄焦点方面存在相当大的困难。不同因素可能导致这种困难，包括任务期间的记忆负荷以及关于窄焦点可能含义的语用 - 语言知识。
