Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants Do Not Appear to Use Sentence Context to Help Recognize Spoken Words

Abstract

Purpose The authors investigated the ability of deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs) to use sentence context to facilitate the perception of spoken words. Method Deaf children with CIs (n = 24) and an age-matched group of children with normal hearing (n = 31) were presented with lexically controlled sentences and were asked to repeat each sentence in its entirety. Performance was analyzed at each of 3 word positions of each sentence (first, second, and third key word). Results Whereas the children with normal hearing showed robust effects of contextual facilitation—improved speech perception for the final words in a sentence—the deaf children with CIs on average showed no such facilitation. Regression analyses indicated that for the deaf children with CIs, Forward Digit Span scores significantly predicted accuracy scores for all 3 positions, whereas performance on the Stroop Color and Word Test, Children’s Version (Golden, Freshwater, & Golden, 2003) predicted how much contextual facilitation was observed at the final word. Conclusions The pattern of results suggests that some deaf children with CIs do not use sentence context to improve spoken word recognition. The inability to use sentence context may be due to possible interactions between language experience and cognitive factors that affect the ability to successfully integrate temporal–sequential information in spoken language.

Effects of Context Type on Lipreading and Listening Performance and Implications for Sentence Processing

“…Indeed, in sentence tests, children with normal hearing recognize sentences comprising lexically easy words more easily compared with those comprising lexically difficult words (Conway, Deocampo, Walk, Anaya, & Pisoni, 2014).…”

Impact of peripheral hearing loss on top-down auditory processing

“…For example, Conway et al found that ambiguous words placed late in a sentence, and hence most able to be facilitated by contextual cues, were not more likely to be intelligible in cochlear implant users (Conway et al, 2014). In Eisenberg et al, the intelligibility benefit of words placed in sentences was seen in most, but not all cochlear implant users (Eisenberg et al, 2002).…”

“…First, the use of contextual cues for speech perception in hearing impaired users is dependent on the degree of hearing loss; the effect is largest when the hearing loss is mild (Başkent et al, 2010). Second, domain non-specific cognitive impairment can be seen in cochlear implant users (Kral et al, 2016; Pisoni et al, 2010), and this cognitive loss correlates with the inability to use contextual cues (Conway et al, 2014). Third, the use of contextual cues depends on one’s vocabulary and experience with language, two factors which are highly variable in cochlear implant users (Connor et al, 2006).…”

Percepção de familiares sobre as habilidades pragmáticas de crianças surdas atendidas em serviço de reabilitação auditiva

“…Os surdos tiveram dificuldade em utilizar o contexto da frase para melhorar o reconhecimento de palavras. Os autores concluíram que as dificuldades dos surdos podem estar relacionadas à reduzida interação entre experiências linguísticas e fatores cognitivos 23 . A Figura 2 e 3 mostrou que o maior número de habilidades pragmáticas estava associado com o maior tempo de uso de próteses auditivas e maior tempo de terapia.…”