Sentence and Connected Speech Perception Abilities of Students with Cochlear Implant in Inclusive Classroom

Abstract

Purpose: As the number of cochlear implant (CI) students has steadily increased in Korea, the number of CI students enrolled in inclusive classrooms has also risen. The present study aimed to investigate speech perception abilities at the sentence and connected speech levels of the CI students in inclusive classroom settings and to analyze the effects of chronological age, age at CI implantation, and wearing period of CI on speech perception.Methods: A total of 63 students were recruited from elementary (30 students) and secondary (33 students) schools. The speech perception were assessed by three sub-tests from the Korea National Institute for Special Education-Developmental Assessment of Speech Perception: Sentence Recognition Test (SRT), Sentence Comprehension Test (SCT), and Connected Speech Test (CST).Results: The results showed that there was no significant difference between SRT and SCT, but performances in CST were significantly poorer than those in sentence-level tests for both CI student groups. Also, both elementary and secondary school CI students showed, individually, a wide range of differences in performance across all tests. In SRT, SCT, and CST, 30-53% of the elementary and 23-39% of the secondary CI students did not reach the norm (-2 standard deviation) ranges, when compared to their normal peers. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the effects of three variables on speech perception were not significant.Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that the CI students in the inclusive classroom need individualized rehabilitative and educational supports.