OBJECTIVES: To investigate the process of speech development in five 42-month-old children with profound deafness who received cochlear implants (CIs) between 19 and 36 months of age and five normal hearing (NH) age mates. METHODS: Conversational samples were collected and transcribed. Sounds produced correctly within meaningful words (target sounds) and recognizable sounds produced in spontaneous productions (target-less sounds) were analyzed for all 10 children. RESULTS: Revealed that there was overlap in the total number of vowels and consonants produced by the two groups. The differences between the two groups were more evident in the target condition, whereas the two groups were more similar in the target-less condition. DISCUSSION: The similarities documented in the target-less repertoire of CI and NH children underscore the importance of examining the emerging sound system to predict the end-point sound system in children with CIs. Using target and target-less speech sound comparisons offers a supplementary view of the emergent process of speech sound development and is a valid method of analysis. Results suggest that early implantation may help some children with profound deafness develop speech sounds in a manner similar to NH age mates.
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the process of speech development in five 42-month-old children with profound deafness who received cochlear implants (CIs) between 19 and 36 months of age and five normal hearing (NH) age mates. METHODS: Conversational samples were collected and transcribed. Sounds produced correctly within meaningful words (target sounds) and recognizable sounds produced in spontaneous productions (target-less sounds) were analyzed for all 10 children. RESULTS: Revealed that there was overlap in the total number of vowels and consonants produced by the two groups. The differences between the two groups were more evident in the target condition, whereas the two groups were more similar in the target-less condition. DISCUSSION: The similarities documented in the target-less repertoire of CI and NH children underscore the importance of examining the emerging sound system to predict the end-point sound system in children with CIs. Using target and target-less speech sound comparisons offers a supplementary view of the emergent process of speech sound development and is a valid method of analysis. Results suggest that early implantation may help some children with profound deafness develop speech sounds in a manner similar to NH age mates.