Browsing by Subject "Speech intelligibility"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Nonword Repetition as a Predictor of Long-Term Speech and Language Skills in Children with Cochlear Implants
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2013) Casserly, Elizabeth D.; Pisoni, David B.; Psychology, School of Science
    Hypothesis: The rapid phonological processing skills of children with cochlear implants early in life (ages 8-10), as measured by nonword repetition performance, will predict their language development 8 years later (ages 16-18). This core processing ability will also correlate with concurrent measures of language at both ages of testing. Background: Understanding the causes of the wide range of performance in pediatric cochlear implant users currently constitutes a major barrier to clinical and research progress in the field. Research into children's neurocognitive abilities such as working memory capacity and verbal rehearsal speed, in addition to conventional demographic variables, has shown that these foundational skills play a key role in determining outcomes. Here, we investigate the impact of rapid phonological processing, an ability which is critical in spoken language use, for children with cochlear implants. Methods: Fifty-two deaf children with cochlear implants completed a battery of 14 clinical and research measures of language, neurocognitive, and nonword repetition skills in 2 testing sessions 8 years apart. Results: Performance on the nonword repetition task at both testing sessions correlated significantly with concurrent language abilities. Importantly, nonword repetition accuracy at age 8 to 10 also significantly predicted performance on measures of language ability at age 16 to 18 in a wide range of domains, from speech intelligibility to sentence recognition in noise. These relations were significant even when other neurocognitive measures were controlled. Conclusion: Early nonword repetition performance in children with cochlear implants predicts later language development and, therefore, may identify those children at high risk for poor outcomes.
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    The Perception of Regional Dialects and Foreign Accents by Cochlear Implant Users
    (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2021-02-17) Tamati, Terrin N.; Pisoni, David B.; Moberly, Aaron C.; Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
    Purpose: This preliminary research examined (a) the perception of two common sources of indexical variability in speech—regional dialects and foreign accents, and (b) the relation between indexical processing and sentence recognition among prelingually deaf, long-term cochlear implant (CI) users and normal-hearing (NH) peers. Method: Forty-three prelingually deaf adolescent and adult CI users and 44 NH peers completed a regional dialect categorization task, which consisted of identifying the region of origin of an unfamiliar talker from six dialect regions of the United States. They also completed an intelligibility rating task, which consisted of rating the intelligibility of short sentences produced by native and nonnative (foreign-accented) speakers of American English on a scale from 1 (not intelligible at all) to 7 (very intelligible). Individual performance was compared to demographic factors and sentence recognition scores. Results: Both CI and NH groups demonstrated difficulty with regional dialect categorization, but NH listeners significantly outperformed the CI users. In the intelligibility rating task, both CI and NH listeners rated foreign-accented sentences as less intelligible than native sentences; however, CI users perceived smaller differences in intelligibility between native and foreign-accented sentences. Sensitivity to accent differences was related to sentence recognition accuracy in CI users. Conclusions: Prelingually deaf, long-term CI users are sensitive to accent variability in speech, but less so than NH peers. Additionally, individual differences in CI users' sensitivity to indexical variability was related to sentence recognition abilities, suggesting a common source of difficulty in the perception and encoding of fine acoustic–phonetic details in speech.
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    Preschool Speech Intelligibility and Vocabulary Skills Predict Long-Term Speech and Language Outcomes Following Cochlear Implantation in Early Childhood
    (Taylor & Francis, 2014) Castellanos, Irina; Kronenberger, William G.; Beer, Jessica; Henning, Shirley C.; Colson, Bethany G.; Pisoni, David B.; Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
    Speech and language measures during grade school predict adolescent speech-language outcomes in children who receive cochlear implants (CIs), but no research has examined whether speech and language functioning at even younger ages is predictive of long-term outcomes in this population. The purpose of this study was to examine whether early preschool measures of speech and language performance predict speech-language functioning in long-term users of CIs. Early measures of speech intelligibility and receptive vocabulary (obtained during preschool ages of 3-6 years) in a sample of 35 prelingually deaf, early-implanted children predicted speech perception, language, and verbal working memory skills up to 18 years later. Age of onset of deafness and age at implantation added additional variance to preschool speech intelligibility in predicting some long-term outcome scores, but the relationship between preschool speech-language skills and later speech-language outcomes was not significantly attenuated by the addition of these hearing history variables. These findings suggest that speech and language development during the preschool years is predictive of long-term speech and language functioning in early-implanted, prelingually deaf children. As a result, measures of speech-language functioning at preschool ages can be used to identify and adjust interventions for very young CI users who may be at long-term risk for suboptimal speech and language outcomes.