Cummings S, Groenewald E, Coetzee L, Hugo R, Van Derlinde M
Departments of Communication Pathology, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol Suppl. 1995 Sep;166:394-7.
The speech production changes of a postlingually deaf child and adult with a multichannel cochlear implant were spectrographically analyzed over a period of time. The segmental analysis in both case studies included the measurement of vowel, fricative, and plosive burst duration; first and second vowel formant frequency relationship; and centroid frequencies of fricatives and plosive bursts. The suprasegmental analysis in the second case study (adult) investigated sentence duration, pitch variation, and word stress. Results of both case studies indicated an overall improvement in the accuracy of consonant and vowel productions following the multichannel cochlear implant, in terms of duration, centroid frequencies, and vowel formant frequency relationships. The suprasegmental analysis indicated an overall improvement with the use of the cochlear implant over time. These positive changes in speech production may be indicative of the improved auditory feedback information provided by the cochlear implant.
