EARLY SPEECH CHANGES IN CHILDREN WITH MULTICHANNEL COCHLEAR IMPLANTS

A number of studies have demonstrated that cochlear implants provide a n improved auditory signal and enhance the development of speech-perce ption and production skills for profoundly deaf children, However, exa ctly when these early speech skills begin to develop remains unclear, To explore this issue, we observed, for a 1-year period, four prelingu ally deaf children who underwent implantation consecutively within 1 m onth of each other, and we paid particular attention to the first few months of rehabilitation. We found immediate speech scores as early as the first day of implant tune-up, Speech production continued to impr ove rapidly throughout the first 4 months but exhibited a generally sl ower rate of progress in some of the speech-production skills at 1 yea r, We also found vowel-production skills to be the easiest to achieve, with word-pattern recognition and consonant voicing of intermediate d ifficulty, Consonant placing and manner of consonant production were t he hardest skills to achieve, Results of speech-perception tests 1 yea r after implantation were markedly improved over preimplantation level s in three of the four children, These early speech changes stress the need for maximization of the capability of the cochlear implant by in stitution of immediate and intensive speech rehabilitation efforts for prelingually deaf children.