Intelligibility of spontaneous conversational speech produced by children with cochlear implants: a review

The emergence of cochlear implant technology has raised hopes about improved outcomes for children with severe and profound hearing impairments. This study sought to examine the current literature to help evaluate whether the new technology is living up to its promise specifically relative to the intelligibility of conversational speech produced by these children.

At least 20 studies to date have reported findings for the intelligibility of speech produced by children fitted with cochlear implants. The current review involved a descriptive, summary examination of 10 of these studies that analyzed spontaneous conversational speech.

The review suggested that intelligibility outcomes for these children appear to be considerably better than we have historically seen in this population (i.e., prior to the development of cochlear implant technology). For children implanted very early it appears that progress toward intelligible speech is more rapid, and the development of fully intelligible speech may be a reasonable goal for many such children. Even for children implanted somewhat later, progress on speech intelligibility appears to continue for at least 10 years post-implantation.

It would appear that cochlear implants are providing much better outcomes compared to older intervention approaches, at least relative to the intelligibility of spontaneous conversation.