Imitation of nonwords by hearing-impaired children with cochlear implants: segmental analyses

The phonological processing skills of 24 pre-lingually deaf 8- and 9-year-old experienced cochlear implant users were measured using a nonword repetition task. The children heard recordings of 20 nonwords and were asked to repeat each pattern as accurately as possible. Detailed segmental analyses of the consonants in the children's imitation responses were carried out. Overall, 39% of the consonants were imitated correctly. Coronals were produced correctly more often than labials or dorsals. There was no difference in the proportion of correctly reproduced stops, fricatives, nasals, and liquids, or voiced and voiceless consonants. Although nonword repetition performance was not correlated with the children's demographic characteristics, the nonword repetition scores were strongly correlated with other measures of the component processes required for the immediate reproduction of a novel sound pattern: spoken word recognition, language comprehension, working memory, and speech production.