Khalesi Mh, Amirfattahi R, Sheikh Zadeh H, Khorsandi Mt, Motesaddi M, Abdi S ,
Volume 59, Issue 5 (9-2001)
Abstract
The main goal of this study is to determine the auditory feedback effects in improvement of speech production process in prelingual totally deaf children who used cochlear implant prosthesis. For this reason, we recorded speech of four prelingual cochlear implant children pre and post of operation. Then we extract some static features of vowels-such as fundamental frequency, formant frequencies, vowel duration and vowel energy-from their stable mid-section and analyze them using a longitudinal prosthesis-on/off analysis. These patients-where are in the range of 7-13 years old-were operated in the cochlear implant clinic of Amiralam hospital. At each session, patients read the sentences once in device-on condition and then after 30 minutes stay in device-off condition. Quantitative results show that at least for the features under study, the patient's reliance on the auditory feedback decreased consistently by time (about 65%-averaged on all three vowels under study and all patients). So we concluded that after a sufficient time of operation, the speech motor patterns of patients will be trained for the correct production of static features of vowels and the relation of patients to auditory feedback for the production of such features considerably decreased by time.
