Study of phonological awareness of preschool and school aged children with cochlear implant and normal hearing

Comparison of Speech Perception Performance According to Prosody Change Between People With Normal Hearing and Cochlear Implant Users

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Cochlear implants (CIs) are well known to improve audibility and speech recognition in individuals with hearing loss, but some individuals still struggle with many aspects in communication, such as prosody. This study explores how prosodic elements are perceived by those with normal hearing (NH) and CIs.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

Thirteen individuals with NH and thirteen CI users participated in this study and completed speech perception, speech prosody perception, speech prosody production, pitch difference discrimination, and melodic contour perception testing.

RESULTS

NH listeners performed significantly better than CI users on speech perception, speech prosody perception (except for words with neutral meaning and a negative prosody change and when words were repeated twice), pitch difference discrimination, and melodic contour perception testing. No statistical significance was observed for speech prosody production for both groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Compared to NH listeners, CI users had limited ability to recognize prosodic elements. The study findings highlight the necessity of an assessment tool and signal processing algorithm for CIs, specifically targeting prosodic elements in clinical settings.

Effect of cochlear implantation on language development and assessment of the quality of studies in this field: A systematic review

Background: Cochlear implantation (CI) is an achievement that facilitates the acquisition of language skills in deaf children throughout the world. The use of this technology has a positive effect on all components of language acquisition (syntax, semantic, pragmatic, etc.). However, this positive impact is influenced by various factors. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of studies on the development of language abilities can help improve these studies. Consequently, in the future, it will lead to the improvement of language rehabilitation in these children. Limited studies on children with CI in have been done so far. This article summarized the outcomes of scientific articles on the clinical efficacy of CI on Persian speaking children. This study also provided a clear picture of these studies by examining the quality of their methodologies and tools.

Methods: Articles indexed in Google Scholar, Web of Science, Medline, Scopus and Iranian databases (Danesh Gostar, Magiran, and SID) were searched using keywords "language," "Cochlear implant", "Persian/ Farsi" in English and Persian languages with "and/or". Original articles investigated on children younger than 13 years old with hearing impairment and CI were included.

Results: Five hundred and twenty-three articles were found based on the keywords. Among all of these, 485 were excluded due to the title and the abstract; we selected 38, of which 24 were repeated. Finally, 14 articles remained. We reviewed the articles based on the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA) and checklist and Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE).

Conclusion: Similar to international studies, Persian speaking children with CI have slower language development than their peers with normal hearing, but they are better than their peers who use hearing aids. The results of reviewing on quality of the articles showed that the studies could not meet reasonable quality because of the lack of a standard test in different aspects of Persian language and the absence of patients’ databanks. These results also can be used by other nationalities that recently have started surveys on children with CIs.

Lowest Oxyhemoglobin Saturation May Be an Independent Factor Influencing Auditory Function in Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea

STUDY OBJECTIVES

The aims of this study were to determine if a correlation exists between the level of hypoxia induced by severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and the level of auditory dysfunction when verifying such a relationship using polysomnography (PSG).

METHODS

A retrospective review of 41 patients with severe OSAS was performed. Independent risk factors for hearing impairment included parameters of PSG, which were analyzed in two hearing groups at a level ≥ 40 decibels (dB).

RESULTS

Oxyhemoglobin saturation, especially the lowest oxyhemoglobin saturation level, showed lower thresholds in the hearing impairment group than in the control group (p = 0.039 at NREM stage; p = 0.029 at REM stage; p = 0.001 at total sleep stage). After adjusting for other risk factors, the sole variable that remained significant was lowest oxyhemoglobin saturation (total; p = 0.046). In the correlation analysis, a decreasing lowest oxyhemoglobin saturation (from all subjects, n = 41) correlated with a greater mean hearing threshold (R(2) = 0.297; p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Our results indicated that lowest oxyhemoglobin saturation in PSG is the only variable correlated with the hearing threshold. This finding could be predictive of possible hearing alternation in patients with severe OSAS.

COMMENTARY

A commentary on this article appears in this issue on page 641.

Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Brain Imaging Investigation of Phonological Awareness and Passage Comprehension Abilities in Adult Recipients of Cochlear Implants

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to examine how the brains of individuals with cochlear implants (CIs) respond to spoken language tasks that underlie successful language acquisition and processing.

METHOD

During functional near-infrared spectroscopy imaging, CI recipients with hearing impairment (n = 10, mean age: 52.7 ± 17.3 years) and controls with normal hearing (n = 10, mean age: 50.6 ± 17.2 years) completed auditory tasks-phonological awareness and passage comprehension-commonly used to investigate neurodevelopmental disorders of language and literacy.

RESULTS

The 2 groups had similar reaction time and performance on experimental tasks, although participants with CIs had lower accuracy than controls. Overall, both CI recipients and controls exhibited similar patterns of brain activation during the tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

The results demonstrate that CI recipients show an overall neurotypical pattern of activation during auditory language tasks on which individuals with neurodevelopmental language learning impairments (e.g., dyslexia) tend to show atypical brain activation. These findings suggest that advancements in functional near-infrared spectroscopy neuroimaging with CI recipients may help shed new light on how varying types of difficulties in language processing affect brain organization for language.

Language skills and phonological awareness in children with cochlear implants and normal hearing

OBJECTIVES

Early auditory experience plays a major role in language acquisition. Linguistic and metalinguistic abilities of children aged 5-5.5 years with cochlear implants (CIs) were compared to age-matched children with normal hearing (NH) to investigate the effect of hearing on development of these two skills.

METHODS

Eighteen children with NH and 18 children with CIs took part in the study. The Test of Language Development-Primary, third edition, was used to assess language and metalinguistic skills by assessment of phonological awareness (PA). Language skills and PA were then compared between groups. Hierarchical linear regression was conducted to determine whether the language skills explained the unique variance in PA.

RESULTS

There were significant differences between children with NH and those with CIs for language skills and PA (p≤0.001). All language skills (semantics, syntax, listening, spoken language, organizing, and speaking) were uniquely predictive of PA outcome in the CI children. Linear combinations of listening and semantics and listening, semantics, and syntax correlated significantly with PA.

CONCLUSION

The results show that children with CIs may have trouble with language skills and PA. Listening, semantics, and syntax, among other skills, are significant indicators of the variance in PA for children with CIs.