title: Picture naming and verbal fluency in children with cochlear implants.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In the present study, the authors examined lexical naming in children with cochlear implants (CIs). The goal was to determine whether children with CIs have deficits in lexical access and organization as revealed through reaction time in picture-naming and verbal fluency (VF) experiments.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children with CIs (n = 20, ages 7-10) were compared with 20 children with normal hearing (NH) matched for age and nonverbal IQ. Lexical abilities were examined using two naming tasks: a timed picture-naming task and a phonological and semantic VF naming task. Picture naming taps into lexical access capabilities and the VF task elucidates lexical organization.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No group differences were found between children with CIs and children with NH on the timed picture-naming task. Children with CIs generated significantly fewer words than the children with NH on the VF tasks. Larger group differences were found for the phonological VF task compared with the semantic VF task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Limited early linguistic and auditory experiences may affect lexical representations and organization (lexical-semantic connections) in school-age children with hearing loss who use CIs. Further analyses and studies should continue to examine these underlying linguistic deficits. The present results suggest a need to emphasize not only increasing the size of children's vocabularies during therapy, but also expanding and increasing the semantic and phonological richness of their lexical representations.
authors.forename: Deena
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wechsler-Kashi
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: Miranda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cleary
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003054:Cochlear Implants / Q000523:psychology*; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012660:Semantics; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014825:Vocabulary