Delayed Speech Perception and Production after Cochlear Implantation in Bilingual Children from Non-Native Families

Nader Nassif,Maria Grazia Barezzani,Luca Oscar Redaelli De Zinis

doi:10.3390/ohbm2010004

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the outcomes of cochlear implantation (CI) in a group of immigrant deaf children living in a foreign language family, following up to 3 years of a personalized habilitation program compared to age-matched Italian CI recipients. Tests of speech perception ability such as the IT-MAIS, the LiP, the CAP, and speech production such as the MUSS have been used before CI and then after 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years. Nonparametrical tests were chosen for comparison. Eight bilingual CI recipients were included in the study and matched to 11 Italian CI recipients. The difference between chronological age at implantation, age at diagnosis, hearing age, and verbal age in the two groups of children was not significant. Comparison of the auditory perceptive and linguistic abilities between the two groups showed significant differences only in preoperative MAIS and postoperative CAP (1 to 3 years). In agreement with other studies, we achieved good performances from bilingual children with CI and our personal experience confirm the attitude of promoting bilingualism throughout the rehabilitation process.

Highlights

The benefits of early second language acquisition have been often disputed or seen with skepticism by some educators; most believe it might impair the correct learning of the first language
If this assumption were true, it might negatively affect the outcomes of cochlear implantation (CI) in deaf children who grow up in a bilingual environment
The aim of this study was to determine the outcomes of CI in a group of immigrant deaf children living in a foreign language family, following up to 3 years of a personalized habilitation program, and to compare them to those achieved by age-matched native family’s children (NFC) CI recipients, in order to test the hypothesis that bilingual CI recipients would never reach the same speech perception skills of NFC

Summary

Introduction

The benefits of early second language acquisition have been often disputed or seen with skepticism by some educators; most believe it might impair the correct learning of the first language. If this assumption were true, it might negatively affect the outcomes of cochlear implantation (CI) in deaf children who grow up in a bilingual environment. Current migratory trends of the populations from underdeveloped countries have led to a significant influx of foreign workers toward European countries. A foreseeable consequence is that families with deaf or hard of hearing children would follow the migrant worker in order to seek help; their health needs must be addressed by the receiving institutions. Offering a CI to a foreign family can prove a challenging task; [1] raising a child with a CI who needs to acquire two languages at the same time increases the odds of unsatisfactory results in language proficiency [2].

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