Emotional prosodic expression of children with hearing aids or cochlear implants, rated by adults and peers

The emotional prosodic expression potential of children with cochlear implants is poorer than that of normal hearing peers. Though little is known about children with hearing aids.

This study was set up to generate a better understanding of hearing aid users' prosodic identifiability compared to cochlear implant users and peers without hearing loss.

Emotional utterances of 75 Dutch speaking children (7 - 12 yr; 26 CHA, 23 CCI, 26 CNH) were gathered. Utterances were evaluated blindly by normal hearing Dutch listeners: 22 children and 9 adults (17 - 24 yrs) for resemblance to three emotions (happiness, sadness, anger).

Emotions were more accurately recognised by adults than by children. Both children and adults correctly judged happiness significantly less often in CCI than in CNH. Also, adult listeners confused happiness with sadness more often in both CHA and CCI than in CNH.

Children and adults are able to accurately evaluate the emotions expressed through speech by children with varying degrees of hearing loss, ranging from mild to profound, nearly as well as they can with typically hearing children. The favourable outcomes emphasise the resilience of children with hearing loss in developing effective emotional communication skills.