Auditory, Visual, and Auditory-Visual Speech Perception by Individuals With Cochlear Implants Versus Individuals With Hearing Aids
By Most, Tova; Rothem, Hilla; Luntz, Michal; American Annals of the Deaf, Vol. 154, No. 3, pp. 284-292Publication Date: Summer 2009
Study evaluated the contribution of cochlear implants (CIs) to the perception of speech by prelingually deaf individuals implanted after the age of 8 years, and compared this CI group performance to the performance of two groups of individuals wearing hearing aids. Participants, 30 individuals 10 to 19 years old with prelingual sensorineural hearing loss, comprised three groups of 10 participants each: CI wearers, hearing aid users with profound hearing impairment (HA-P), and hearing aid users with severe hearing impairment (HA-S). Speech stimuli in the form of meaningful words and sentences were presented to participants via CD on a computer with a monitor and speaker in 5 different conditions: to the visual channel alone, to the auditory channel alone at two levels of intensity, and to the combined auditory-visual (AV) channel at two levels of intensity. Findings showed that participants in all groups performed better in the perception of speech through the AV mode than in each sensory mode alone. Some of the results indicated better performance of the CI group than the HA-P group, thus indicating the advantage of CIs over hearing aids for late implantees, especially under difficult listening conditions. In addition, all participants relied on visual information under difficult auditory conditions. Based on these outcomes, the authors conclude that intervention with CI users should include exposure to visual as well as auditory information and should emphasize AV integration.
Published by: Gallaudet University Press (Website:http://gupress.gallaudet.edu)
Council of American Instructors of the Deaf (Web Site: http://www.caid.org )
Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf (Web Site: http://www.ceasd.org )
