VISUAL PERCEPTION OF SPEECH IN CHILDREN WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANT

Abstract

By the development and application of cochlear implants, a large number of people with hearing impairment realize a better perception of speech after implantation. The aim of the research was to determine the differences in the quality of the perception of speech of children with cochlear implant in relation to the perception modality (auditory, visual, and audiovisual). The sample consisted of 30 deaf children with a cochlear implant, both sexes, chronologically aged from 3 to 15 years old, who regularly attend or had attended rehabilitation of hearing and speaking. The Test Lingvogram and the Articulation Test were used for testing (Vuletić, 1990). The data were processed with descriptive statistics and singlefactor analysis of variance. Respondents had the weakest results of word repetition and word understanding in the visual modality, much better results in auditory modality, and the best results in audiovisual modality. By comparing different modalities of speech perception, it was found that the differences were statistically significant in all pairs of modalities, both in word repetition and in word understanding, at the level of statistical significance p < .05, except between the visual and auditory perception (p = .26) in word repetition, but they were clinically significant in this combination too. The reason for the better effects of the modalities of the auditory and especially audiovisual perception, in relation to the visual perception of speech in this study is the application of cochlear implants in improving hearing and listening. However, people with a cochlear implant are still persons with hearing impairment. They should always have a high level of quality of the visual perception of speech in communication, which can be achieved by special exercises in the process of early rehabilitation of hearing and speaking