Consonant and sign phoneme acquisition in signing children following cochlear implantation

Deaf children from signing programs provide new opportunities to investigate changes in sign and speech acquisition following cochlear implantation. We describe the acquisition of sign phonemes (location, movement, and handshapes) and speech phonemes (consonants) in 22 implanted children with diverse demographic backgrounds. New consonants and new sign phonemes emerged in developmentally expected sequences and with statistically significant correlation coefficients between cumulative number of new consonants and new sign phonemes over time. Regression slopes from plotted z scores revealed a burst in consonant and sign growth in early months post-implant, with continuous but plateauing growth over time. These results and documentation of developmental levels of sign and speech phoneme trajectories should be helpful to other researchers and to clinicians working with signing children who have cochlear implants.