title: Acoustic properties of vowel production in prelingually deafened Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants.
abstract: The present study examined the acoustic features of vowel production in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs). The subjects included 14 native Mandarin-speaking, prelingually deafened children with CIs (2.9-8.3 yr old) and 60 age-matched, normal-hearing (NH) children (3.1-9.0 years old). Each subject produced a list of monosyllables containing seven Mandarin vowels: [i, a, u, y, ɤ, ʅ, ɿ]. Midpoint F1 and F2 of each vowel token were extracted and normalized to eliminate the effects of different vocal tract sizes. Results showed that the CI children produced significantly longer vowels and less compact vowel categories than the NH children did. The CI children's acoustic vowel space was reduced due to a retracted production of the vowel [i]. The vowel space area showed a strong negative correlation with age at implantation (r = -0.80). The analysis of acoustic distance showed that the CI children produced corner vowels [a, u] similarly to the NH children, but other vowels (e.g., [ʅ, ɿ]) differently from the NH children, which suggests that CI children generally follow a similar developmental path of vowel acquisition as NH children. These findings highlight the importance of early implantation and have implications in clinical aural habilitation in young children with CIs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas 72035, USA.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Rehabilitation and Communication Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.affiliation: School of Rehabilitation and Communication Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D044466:Asian People; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D010700:Phonetics; D013061:Speech Acoustics