Effects of Computer-Assisted Speech Training on Mandarin-Speaking Hearing-Impaired Children

Abstract

The present study investigated whether moderate amounts of computer-assisted speech training can improve the speech recognition performance of hearing-impaired children. Ten Mandarin-speaking children (3 hearing aid users and 7 cochlear implant users) participated in the study. Training was conducted at home using a personal computer for half an hour per day, 5 days per week, for a period of 10 weeks. Results showed significant improvements in subjects’ vowel, consonant, and tone recognition performance after training. The improved performance was largely retained for 2 months after training was completed. These results suggest that moderate amounts of auditory training, using a computer-based auditory rehabilitation tool with minimal supervision, can be effective in improving the speech performance of hearing-impaired children.

Environmental Sound Training in Cochlear Implant Users

“…The advent of relatively inexpensive personal computers has made it possible to automate many common training routines, making computerized training a practical, low-cost approach for improving patient auditory perception (Henshaw & Ferguson, 2013;Pizarek, Shafiro, & McCarthy, 2013). A number of training programs, targeting different aspects of auditory perception and cognitive processing, have been tested with CI patients (Dawson & Clark, 1997;Fu & Galvin, 2007;Gfeller, Witt, Kim, Adamek, & Coffman, 1999;Goldsworthy & Shannon, 2014;Ingvalson, Lee, Fiebig, & Wong, 2013;Miller, Watson, Kistler, Wightman, & Preminger, 2008;Oba, Fu, & Galvin, 2011;Stacey et al, 2010;Wu, Yang, Lin, & Fu, 2007;Zhang, Dorman, Fu, & Spahr, 2012). Training studies with CI patients differ considerably in terms of study design, training regimens, materials, and outcome measures.…”

Maximizing cochlear implant patients’ performance with advanced speech training procedures

“…We also recently studied the effect of targeted phonetic contrast training on Mandarin-speaking CI users' Chinese speech performance (Wu et al, 2007). In tonal languages such as Mandarin Chinese, the tonality of a syllable is lexically important (Lin, 1988;Wang, 1989).…”

“…These cues are generally weaker than F 0 , and CI users may require targeted training to attend to these cues. Wu et al (2007) studied the effect of moderate auditory training on Chinese speech perception in 10 hearing-impaired Mandarin-speaking pediatric subjects (7 CI users and 3 HA users). After measuring baseline Chinese vowel, consonant and tone recognition, subjects trained at home using the CAST program.…”

“…Similar to the Fu et al (2005a) and Wu et al (2007) training protocols, subjects trained for 1 h per day, 5 days per week, for a period of 1 month or longer. Training was performed using different frequency ranges from those used for testing, and auditory/ visual feedback was provided, allowing participants to compare their (incorrect) response to the correct response.…”

Hear here: Children with hearing loss learn words by listening

“…Research evidence is available only for the efficacy of speech perception intervention with adults and school-aged children. Although these intervention studies reported positive outcomes [39][40][41][42], their applicability to preschool children is limited because all of these programmes require participants to have prior linguistic and letter-to-sound knowledge in addition to being literate. Moreover, the programmes tracked the development of speech perception skills without measuring the development of other aspects of verbal communication skills such as vocabulary development and speech intelligibility, thereby failing to demonstrate any improvement in functional skills as a result of improved speech perception or auditory development.…”