Vocal Turn-taking between Mothers and Their Toddlers with Cochlear Implants

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Objectives: The parental verbal response greatly influences infants’ speech-language development in early communication. This study aimed to investigate the features of parental verbal responses in infants who have undergone simultaneous bilateral cochlear implantation compared to chronological age-matched (CA) and hearing age-matched (HA) children who have typical hearing.Methods: Thirteen pairs of infants with cochlear implants (CIs) and their parents, 13 pairs of CA infants and their parents, and 13 pairs of HA infants and their parents participated in this study. The parent-infant interaction task was conducted in a free-play situation. Infants’ vocalizations were classified into canonical and non-canonical vocalizations. Parental verbal responses were divided into parental contingent responses (PCRs), parental non-contingent responses (PNCRs), and no response (NR). PCRs were divided into the language expectant and language non-expectant responses.Results: There was no significant difference in the ratio of parental verbal responses between the three groups. The ratio of parental verbal responses to non-canonical vocalizations was higher than parental verbal responses to canonical vocalizations. Additionally, the ratio of PCRs was higher than that of PNCRs and NR, and the ratio of language expectant responses was higher than that of language non-expectant responses. However, the ratio of language development responses to non-canonical vocalizations is similar to that of canonical vocalizations in the CI group.Conclusion: Parents of the simultaneous bilateral CI group tend to respond quickly and sensitively to the vocalization of infants’ vocalizations. Parents in the CI group can adjust their language based on their infant’s vocalization and development. These findings can guide early intervention and coaching for parents of infants with CIs.

Parental Contingent Verbal Response to Early Vocalizations of Simultaneous Bilateral Cochlear Implantees

Jeon,

Lee

2023

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Korean Mothers’ Speech to Young Children with Cochlear Implants in Parent-Child Interaction

Park,

Lee

2023

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Objectives: Infant-directed speech is the particular form of spontaneous speech observed in interactions between parents and their young children. There are reasons to believe that infant-directed speech may help to make language acquisition easier for young children. Thus, this study investigates the effects of cochlear implantation on mothers’ speech to their young children.Methods: Fourteen children with cochlear implants (CIs) and 14 agematched children with normal hearing (NH), aged 12 to 35 months, participated in this study. We recorded mothers’ utterances through a parent-child interaction task. Mothers’ speech features such as fundamental frequency, utterance length, speech rate, and pause duration were measured across speech samples.Results: There were no significant differences between the CI and NH groups in fundamental frequency, utterance length, and pause duration variables. However, the speech of mothers in the CI group was significantly slower than that of the NH group.Conclusion: Mothers used typical infant-directed speech styles when speaking to their children with CIs. Additionally, mothers of the CI group tended to speak more slowly than mothers of the NH group in the parent-child interactions. Given that the language skills of children with CIs are significantly lower than those of children with NH in this study, mothers of the CI group may speak to their children at a slower rate than those of the NH group to provide their linguistic input more efficiently. These findings suggest that children with CIs are exposed to infant-directed speech with similar acoustic qualities as children with NH.

Quantity and Quality of Parental Linguistic Input to Young Children with Cochlear Implants: A Longitudinal Study

Lee,

Lee

2023

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Objectives: This study aims to investigate longitudinal changes in the quantity and quality of the parental linguistic input of children with cochlear implants (CIs) and children with typical hearing (TH) and find the significant parental linguistic variables that might positively be related to children’s language development in the CI group. Methods: Participants were 33 parent-child dyads, including 16 children with CIs and 17 with TH at the initial visit. They participated in a 20-minute free-play task at three-time points (initial, 6-month, and 12-month visits). Results: There were no significant differences between the CI and TH groups in the total number of utterances (NTU) and the total number of words (NTW). However, the two groups significantly differed in the different number of words (NDW) and higher-level facilitative language techniques (FLTs). In addition, the CI group produced more utterances than TH parents at the initial visit. However, there were no significant differences in the NTU between CI and TH groups at 6- and 12-month visits. Furthermore, both groups used fewer NDW and mental state words at the initial visit than at the 12-month visit. Nevertheless, CI and TH groups used fewer higher-level FLTs at the initial visit than at the 6- and 12-month visits. Lastly, qualitative parental linguistic input is a critical factor, continuously affecting language development in children with CIs. Conclusion: These findings suggest that early intervention programs should be designed to enable parents to use more qualitative linguistic features in daily routines to build their child’s language skills.