Effects of a Nucleus multichannel cochlear implant upon speech production in children.

The purpose of this report is to describe the speech production of children participating in the Food and Drug Administration's approved clinical trials for the Nucleus multichannel cochlear implant. A significant increase in the ability to imitate nonsegmental aspects of speech was noted after using the implant; however, nonsegmental performance did not appear to increase significantly between 12, 18, or 24 mo postimplantation. Significant increases occurred in imitative and elicited segmental performance after implantation at all measurement points. Speech intelligibility was significantly higher postimplant than preimplant; however, no significant change in mean length of utterance was observed. Data from these studies suggest a multichannel cochlear implant may provide information that is useful for assisting in the development or refinement of some aspects of spoken communication.