Initial Stop Voicing in Bilingual Children With Cochlear Implants and Their Typically Developing Peers With Normal...

Area of Science:

• Speech-language pathology
• Developmental linguistics
• Auditory neuroscience

Background:

• Bilingual children develop complex phonological systems.
• Understanding speech sound acquisition in children with hearing loss using cochlear implants (CIs) is crucial.
• Investigating how cochlear implants affect phonological development in bilinguals is important.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare stop voicing differentiation in bilingual children with normal hearing (NH) and those with hearing loss using cochlear implants (CIs).
• To determine if cochlear implant use impacts the ability to distinguish speech sounds.
• To examine language-specific patterns in stop voicing differentiation.

Main Methods:

• Study included 22 bilingual children (11 NH, 11 CI users), matched for hearing age.
• Data collected via single-word picture elicitation focusing on initial stop consonants.
• Statistical analysis used repeated measures ANOVA to assess voice onset time and prevoicing.

Main Results:

• Significant effects found for language, stop voicing, and place of articulation on speech sound production.
• No significant differences observed between normal hearing (NH) and cochlear implant (CI) groups.
• Both NH and CI groups demonstrated stop voicing differentiation in a language-specific manner.

Conclusions:

• Bilingual children with normal hearing (NH) and cochlear implants (CIs) achieve stop voicing differentiation similarly.
• Stop voicing differentiation is accomplished in a language-specific manner by both groups.
• Cochlear implant use does not impede the development of stop voicing contrasts in bilingual children.