Speech variability and accuracy in Cantonese-speaking children with hearing impairment : comparison with normal-hearing peers

Abstract

This study compared speech accuracy and variability between children with hearing impairment and normal-hearing children. Twenty-seven participants were recruited, including nine children with cochlear-implants (CI), nine children with hearing aids (HA) and nine normal-hearing children (NH). Participants were asked to name each targets from Cantonese Segmental Phonology Test (CSPT) in three separate trials. Speech accuracy and variability were analyzed in different conditions (i.e. vowels, consonants, tones and whole-words) and in different sets of initial consonants (i.e. set 1, set 2 and set 3). The results showed relatively higher accuracy and lower variability in tones and vowels than in consonants and whole-words, and also in earlier acquired initial consonants than those acquired later. The HA group had higher variability and lower accuracy than the CI and NH groups. It was concluded that, with similar duration of hearing experience, using cochlear implants was more effective than using hearing aids in assisting children with profound hearing impairment in catching up with normal children in speech accuracy and variability. Acquisitional order of phonological features was also found to affect accuracy and variability of speech.