Evaluation of cochlear implanted children's voices

Cochlear implant (CI) is a good means in developing communication in deaf c hildren. Nevertheless, compared to children with the same age, CI patients' voices are far from being similar. In this work, the voice of CI children has been compared with the voice of corresponding normal children (same age , same sex) included in the main stream. Six girls and two boys participate d to the experiment. The phonetic material was a paragraph of the French st andard text La bise et le soleil (The North Wind and the Sun). An objective and a subjective analysis of the voice were done and parameters were compa red between both groups of people (implantees and control). Studied paramet ers were voice pitch, intensity, fluency, pauses, articulation and pleasant ness in the objective analysis, and voice pitch, formants, and duration for the objective study. It appeared that intensity variations were different between control and implanted subjects. Also voice formants were not situat ed in the same region regarding the normal ranges; but differences were dif ficult to assess. Globally, the main change was in the speaking duration. T his method is open for further studies and points out some relevant items f or an efficient use in rehabilitation sessions. (C) 1999 Published by Elsev ier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.