Early speech changes in children with multichannel cochlear implants

A number of studies have demonstrated that cochlear implants provide an improved auditory signal and enhance the development of speech-perception and production skills for profoundly deaf children. However, exactly when these early speech skills begin to develop remains unclear. To explore this issue, we observed, for a 1-year period, four prelingually deaf children who underwent implantation consecutively within 1 month of each other, and we paid particular attention to the first few months of rehabilitation. We found immediate speech scores as early as the first day of implant tune-up. Speech production continued to improve rapidly throughout the first 4 months but exhibited a generally slower rate of progress in some of the speech-production skills at 1 year. We also found vowel-production skills to be the easiest to achieve, with word-pattern recognition and consonant voicing of intermediate difficulty. Consonant placing and manner of consonant production were the hardest skills to achieve. Results of speech-perception tests 1 year after implantation were markedly improved over preimplantation levels in three of the four children. These early speech changes stress the need for maximization of the capability of the cochlear implant by institution of immediate and intensive speech rehabilitation efforts for prelingually deaf children.