IMITATIVE CONSONANT FEATURE PRODUCTION BY CHILDREN WITH MULTICHANNEL SENSORY AIDS

Objective: To examine changes over time in consonant feature productio n by children with profound hearing impairments who used either the Nu cleus multichannel cochlear implant or the multichannel vibrotactile a id, Tactaid 7. Design: Imitative consonant productions of children wit h prelingual deafness were elicited and transcribed at two intervals: 1) before receiving their respective devices (predevice interval), and 2) after an average of 1.5 yr of device use (postdevice interval), Th e consonant productions were analyzed in terms of the percentage of co nsonant features (manner, place, and voicing) produced by the child th at matched the features of the examiner's target, The percentage of fe atures produced correctly was then averaged across repetitions, vowel environments, and participants within each group. Results: At the pred evice interval, the cochlear implant and Tactaid 7 participants demons trated similar imitative consonant production abilities After an avera ge of 1.5 yr of device use, the cochlear implant participants demonstr ated significantly greater gains than did the Tactaid 7 participants f or the features of voicing and place of articulation, Although the coc hlear implant participants showed a trend towards better production of the consonant manner features, this difference failed to reach signif icance, Conclusions: The current results suggest that the use of a mul tichannel sensory aid yields improvements in consonant feature product ion. Furthermore, use of a cochlear implant appears to promote the pro duction of consonant voicing and place features to a greater degree th an does time use of a multichannel tactile aid.