Consonant Recognition Research Articles

Effect of the Target and Conflicting Frequency and Time Ranges on Consonant Enhancement in Normal-Hearing Listeners.

In this paper, the effects of intensifying useful frequency and time regions (target frequency and time ranges) and the removal of detrimental frequency and time regions (conflicting frequency and time ranges) for consonant enhancement were determined. Thirteen normal-hearing (NH) listeners participated in two experiments. In the first experiment, the target and conflicting frequency and time ranges for each consonant were identified under a quiet, dichotic listening condition by analyzing consonant confusion matrices. The target frequency range was defined as the frequency range that provided the highest performance and was decreased 40% from the peak performance from both high-pass filtering (HPF) and low-pass filtering (LPF) schemes. The conflicting frequency range was defined as the frequency range that yielded the peak errors of the most confused consonants and was 20% less than the peak error from both filtering schemes. The target time range was defined as a consonant segment that provided the highest performance and was decreased 40% from that peak performance when the duration of the consonant was systematically truncated from the onset. The conflicting time ranges were defined on the coincided target time range because, if they temporarily coincide, the conflicting frequency ranges would be the most detrimental factor affecting the target frequency ranges. In the second experiment, consonant recognition was binaurally measured in noise under three signal processing conditions: unprocessed, intensified target ranges by a 6-dB gain (target), and combined intensified target and removed conflicting ranges (target-conflicting). The results showed that consonant recognition improved significantly with the target condition but greatly deteriorated with a target-conflicting condition. The target condition helped transmit voicing and manner cues while the target-conflicting condition limited the transmission of these cues. Confusion analyses showed that the effect of the signal processing on consonant improvement was consonant-specific: the unprocessed condition was the best for /da, pa, ma, sa/; the target condition was the best for /ga, fa, va, za, ʒa/; and the target-conflicting condition was the best for /na, ʃa/. Perception of /ba, ta, ka/ was independent of the signal processing. The results suggest that enhancing the target ranges is an efficient way to improve consonant recognition while the removal of conflicting ranges negatively impacts consonant recognition.

Effects of the Configuration of Hearing Loss on Consonant Perception between Simulated Bimodal and Electric Acoustic Stimulation Hearing.

Cochlear implant technology allows for acoustic and electric stimulations to be combined across ears (bimodal) and within the same ear (electric acoustic stimulation [EAS]). Mechanisms used to integrate speech acoustics may be different between the bimodal and EAS hearing, and the configurations of hearing loss might be an important factor for the integration. Thus, differentiating the effects of different configurations of hearing loss on bimodal or EAS benefit in speech perception (differences in performance with combined acoustic and electric stimulations from a better stimulation alone) is important. Using acoustic simulation, we determined how consonant recognition was affected by different configurations of hearing loss in bimodal and EAS hearing. A mixed design was used with one between-subject variable (simulated bimodal group vs. simulated EAS group) and one within-subject variable (acoustic stimulation alone, electric stimulation alone, and combined acoustic and electric stimulations). Twenty adult subjects (10 for each group) with normal hearing were recruited. Consonant perception was unilaterally or bilaterally measured in quiet. For the acoustic stimulation, four different simulations of hearing loss were created by band-pass filtering consonants with a fixed lower cutoff frequency of 100 Hz and each of the four upper cutoff frequencies of 250, 500, 750, and 1,000 Hz. For the electric stimulation, an eight-channel noise vocoder was used to generate a typical spectral mismatch by using fixed input (200-7,000 Hz) and output (1,000-7,000 Hz) frequency ranges. The effects of simulated hearing loss on consonant recognition were compared between the two groups. Significant bimodal and EAS benefits occurred regardless of the configurations of hearing loss and hearing technology (bimodal vs. EAS). Place information was better transmitted in EAS hearing than in bimodal hearing. These results suggest that configurations of hearing loss are not a significant factor for integrating consonant information between acoustic and electric stimulations. The results also suggest that mechanisms used to integrate consonant information may be similar between bimodal and EAS hearing.

Effects of Adaptive Non-linear Frequency Compression in Hearing Aids on Mandarin Speech and Sound-Quality Perception

ObjectiveThis study was aimed at examining the effects of an adaptive non-linear frequency compression algorithm implemented in hearing aids (i.e., SoundRecover2, or SR2) at different parameter settings and auditory acclimatization on speech and sound-quality perception in native Mandarin-speaking adult listeners with sensorineural hearing loss.DesignData consisted of participants’ unaided and aided hearing thresholds, Mandarin consonant and vowel recognition in quiet, and sentence recognition in noise, as well as sound-quality ratings through five sessions in a 12-week period with three SR2 settings (i.e., SR2 off, SR2 default, and SR2 strong).Study SampleTwenty-nine native Mandarin-speaking adults aged 37–76 years old with symmetric sloping moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss were recruited. They were all fitted bilaterally with Phonak Naida V90-SP BTE hearing aids with hard ear-molds.ResultsThe participants demonstrated a significant improvement of aided hearing in detecting high frequency sounds at 8 kHz. For consonant recognition and overall sound-quality rating, the participants performed significantly better with the SR2 default setting than the other two settings. No significant differences were found in vowel and sentence recognition among the three SR2 settings. Test session was a significant factor that contributed to the participants’ performance in all speech and sound-quality perception tests. Specifically, the participants benefited from a longer duration of hearing aid use.ConclusionFindings from this study suggested possible perceptual benefit from the adaptive non-linear frequency compression algorithm for native Mandarin-speaking adults with moderate-to-profound hearing loss. Periods of acclimatization should be taken for better performance in novel technologies in hearing aids.

Changes in Orientation Behavior due to Extended High-Frequency (5 to 10 kHz) Spatial Cues.

Objectives:Current hearing aids have a limited bandwidth, which limits the intelligibility and quality of their output, and inhibits their uptake. Recent advances in signal processing, as well as novel methods of transduction, allow for a greater useable frequency range. Previous studies have shown a benefit for this extended bandwidth in consonant recognition, talker-sex identification, and separating sound sources. To explore whether there would be any direct spatial benefits to extending bandwidth, we used a dynamic localization method in a realistic situation.Design:Twenty-eight adult participants with minimal hearing loss reoriented themselves as quickly and accurately as comfortable to a new, off-axis near-field talker continuing a story in a background of far-field talkers of the same overall level in a simulated large room with common building materials. All stimuli were low-pass filtered at either 5 or 10 kHz on each trial. To further simulate current hearing aids, participants wore microphones above the pinnae and insert earphones adjusted to provide a linear, zero-gain response.Results:Each individual trajectory was recorded with infra-red motion-tracking and analyzed for accuracy, duration, start time, peak velocity, peak velocity time, complexity, reversals, and misorientations. Results across listeners showed a significant increase in peak velocity and significant decrease in start and peak velocity time with greater (10 kHz) bandwidth.Conclusions:These earlier, swifter orientations demonstrate spatial benefits beyond static localization accuracy in plausible conditions; extended bandwidth without pinna cues provided more salient cues in a realistic mixture of talkers.

Vowel Context Effect on the Perception of Stop Consonants in Malayalam and Its Role in Determining Syllable Frequency.

Background and ObjectivesThe study investigated vowel context effects on the perception of stop consonants in Malayalam. It also probed into the role of vowel context effects in determining the frequency of occurrence of various consonant-vowel (CV) syllables in Malayalam.Subjects and MethodsThe study used a cross-sectional pre-experimental post-test only research design on 30 individuals with normal hearing, who were native speakers of Malayalam. The stimuli included three stop consonants, each spoken in three different vowel contexts. The resultant nine syllables were presented in original form and five gating conditions. The consonant recognition in different vowel contexts of the participants was assessed. The frequency of occurrence of the nine target syllables in the spoken corpus of Malayalam was also systematically derived.ResultsThe consonant recognition score was better in the /u/ vowel context compared with /i/ and /a/ contexts. The frequency of occurrence of the target syllables derived from the spoken corpus of Malayalam showed that the three stop consonants occurred more frequently with the vowel /a/ compared with /u/ and /i/.ConclusionsThe findings show a definite vowel context effect on the perception of the Malayalam stop consonants. This context effect observed is different from that in other languages. Stop consonants are perceived better in the context of /u/ compared with the /a/ and /i/ contexts. Furthermore, the vowel context effects do not appear to determine the frequency of occurrence of different CV syllables in Malayalam.

Improving the Ability to Recognize Consonants Through Smart Box Media for Children aged 4-5 Years in Kindergarten

The ability to recognize consonants has an important role in the lives of early childhood because introducing consonants to children is the first step for children to be able to read and to make a word, consonants and vowels are needed. This study aims to determine the application and results of the "Smart Box" media towards increasing consonant recognition in children in group A. This study uses Classroom Action Research as an approach to improve children's ability to recognize consonants. It is carried out in 2 cycles which are divided into three stages, namely pre-cycle, cycle I and cycle II to obtain the expected results. In the pre-cycle the result of the percentage of action achievement value was 46.16%, while in the first cycle the percentage increased by 22.09% so that the percentage score was 69%, which means it was not successful. Then the researcher continued by giving action in the second cycle, after doing the research in the second cycle, the percentage of action achievement value became 88.58%%, so that the percentage value obtained in the first cycle and second cycle increased by 19.58%. With this it can be seen from the comparison between cycles I and II during the research. From the results obtained, there is an increase which proves that using the "Smart Box" media can improve the ability to recognize children's consonants.

The Effectiveness of Communication-Oriented Pronunciation Instruction and Students' Perception

The purpose of this study is intended to empirically examine whether or not communication-oriented pronunciation teaching affects the English segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation improvements of Korean college learners, as well as their English speaking ability. The students who participated in this study were 26 college students, all of whom were taking an English pronunciation clinic course at a local university. Three types of pre and post-tests were conducted to find out how communication-oriented pronunciation teaching influenced the learners’ pronunciation. Namely, tests of consonant and vowel sound recognition, reading aloud tests, and picture description tests.<br/>First, a total of 40 questions were given as pre-and post-pronunciation recognition evaluations to find out how accurately the students perceived the sounds of consonants and vowels. In addition, the students’ voices were recorded as they read dialogue readings both before and after the evaluation, in order to examine the degree of improvement of the segmental and suprasegmental features. Finally, the students were asked to describe certain pictures before and after the course to see if there were any beneficial effects regarding their pronunciation of English.<br/>The findings showed that communication-oriented activities led to significant improvements, but only on the consonant recognition tests, not on the tests with vowels. The results from the reading aloud tests also demonstrated that the communication-oriented activities helped students to improve suprasegmental elements, such as stress, intonation, and rhythm. Moreover, there was a significant improvement in the speaking ability of the students, from which I can infer that communication-oriented activities have a positive effect on improving the students’ suprasegmentals, as well as their speaking ability.

Using the electrically-evoked compound action potential (ECAP) interphase gap effect to select electrode stimulation sites in cochlear implant users

Studies in cochlear implanted animals show that the IPG Effect for ECAP growth functions (i.e., the magnitude of the change in ECAP amplitude growth function (AGF) slope or peak amplitude when the interphase gap (IPG) is increased) can be used to estimate the densities of spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) near the electrode stimulation and recording sites. In humans, the same ECAP IPG Effect measures correlate with speech recognition performance. The present study examined the efficacy of selecting electrode sites for stimulation based on the IPG Effect, in order to improve performance of CI users on speech recognition tasks.We measured the ECAP IPG Effect for peak amplitude in adult (>18 years old) CI users (N= 18 ears), and created experimental programs to stimulate electrodes with either the highest or lowest ECAP IPG Effect for peak amplitude. Subjects also listened to a program without any electrodes deactivated. In a subset of subject ears (11/18), we compared performance differences between the experimental programs to post-operative computerized tomography (CT) scans to examine underlying factors that might contribute to the efficacy of an electrode site-selection approach.For sentences-in-noise, average performance was better when subjects listened to the experimental program that stimulated electrodes with the highest rather than the lowest IPG Effect for ECAP peak amplitude. A similar pattern was noted for transmission and perception of consonant place cues in a consonant recognition task. However, on average, performance when listening to a program with higher IPG Effect values was equal to that when listening with all electrodes activated. Results also suggest that scalar location (scala tympani or vestibuli) should be considered when using an ECAP-based electrode site-selection procedure to optimize CI performance.

Consonant Recognition Using Coarticulatory Cues in Individuals with Normal Hearing and Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Background and Objectives: The study investigated the role of coarticulatory cues in the perception of consonants in Malayalam and its temporal window. It also compared normal hearing individuals and individuals with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) for their ability to utilize coarticulatory cues for the perception of consonants. Methods: The study used a quasi- experimental post-test only mixed research design. Fifteen normal-hearing individuals and 15 individuals with SNHL who were native speakers of Malayalam participated in the study. The stimuli included consonant-vowel syllables in their original and truncated forms. The forward-gating method was used to generate the truncated tokens. The participants were assessed for their consonant recognition in closed-set conditions. Results: There was a significant difference in the temporal window of the utility of coarticulatory cues across consonants and also between the two groups of participants. Conclusions: In normal-hearing individuals, coarticulatory cues are useful for the recognition of stop consonants, nasals as well as fricatives, with the maximum temporal window of utility seen in nasals. However, individuals with SNHL fail to utilize the available coarticulatory cues to recognize the consonants.

Auditory Rehabilitation Post-Cochlear Implant

Introduction: In the present work, a review is conducted on hearing loss, its origin, the consequences of the lack of a timely treatment, the possibilities and benefits provided by the access to a cochlear implant and the corresponding auditory rehabilitation. Materials and Methods: The methods used in the present work were Ling Test, Vowel Recognition, Consonant Recognition, Two-syllable Word Test, and Open-set Sentence Recognition. Results: By means of a descriptive study of a population that received a cochlear implant and after one year of use, we can observe high rates of auditory discrimination in all the variables presented and their levels of requirement and complexity, showing a close relationship between an appropriate and timely approach and a successful auditory rehabilitation. Conclusion: In all of the cases in this sample, the cochlear implant led to an improved quality of life for both the patients and their family members, allowing children to develop the language and improve their performance in school activities, and adults to appropriately reintegrate into society.

Auditory Rehabilitation Post-Cochlear Implant

Introduction: In the present work, a review is conducted on hearing loss, its origin, the consequences of the lack of a timely treatment, the possibilities and benefits provided by the access to a cochlear implant and the corresponding auditory rehabilitation. Materials and Methods: The methods used in the present work were Ling Test, Vowel Recognition, Consonant Recognition, Two-syllable Word Test, and Open-set Sentence Recognition. Results: By means of a descriptive study of a population that received a cochlear implant and after one year of use, we can observe high rates of auditory discrimination in all the variables presented and their levels of requirement and complexity, showing a close relationship between an appropriate and timely approach and a successful auditory rehabilitation. Conclusion: In all of the cases in this sample, the cochlear implant led to an improved quality of life for both the patients and their family members, allowing children to develop the language and improve their performance in school activities, and adults to appropriately reintegrate into society.

Association Between Tinnitus Pitch and Consonant Recognition in Noise.

Purpose Difficulties in speech-in-noise understanding are often reported in individuals with tinnitus. Building on our previous findings that speech-in-noise performance is correlated with subjective loudness of tinnitus, this study aimed to investigate the effect of tinnitus pitch on consonant recognition in noise. Method Pure-tone audiometry and the Quick Speech-in-Noise Test were conducted on 66 participants categorized into four groups by their hearing sensitivity and self-report of tinnitus. Consonant recognition scores at various frequency ranges were obtained at the 5 dB SNR condition of the Quick Speech-in-Noise Test. Participants with tinnitus also completed a tinnitus pitch-matching procedure. Correlation analyses were conducted between tinnitus pitch and the frequency of the worst consonant recognition, and the error rates based on word and sentence position were compared. Results Regardless of hearing sensitivity, tinnitus pitch did not correlate with the frequency of the worst consonant recognition. Sentence-initial word recognition was affected by hearing loss, whereas sentence-final word recognition was not affected by hearing loss or tinnitus. In contrast to individuals with normal hearing, participants with hearing loss varied in full-sentence recognition, with those reporting tinnitus exhibiting significantly higher error rates. Conclusions The findings suggest that the effect of tinnitus on consonant recognition in noise may involve higher level functions more than perceptual characteristics of tinnitus. Furthermore, for individuals with speech-in-noise concerns, clinical evaluation should address both hearing sensitivity and the presence of tinnitus. Future speech-in-noise studies should incorporate cognitive tests and, possibly, brain imaging to parse out the contribution of cognitive factors, such as cognitive control, in speech-in-noise in tinnitus.

Effects of nonlinear frequency compression on Mandarin speech and sound-quality perception in hearing-aid users

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of NLFC fitting in hearing aids and auditory acclimatisation on speech perception and sound-quality rating in hearing-impaired, native Mandarin-speaking adult listeners.Design: Mandarin consonant, vowel and tone recognition were tested in quiet and sentence recognition in noise (speech-shaped noise at a +5 dB signal-to-noise ratio) with NLFC-on and NLFC-off. Sound-quality ratings were collected on a 0–10 scale at each test session. A generalised linear model and correlational analyses were performed.Study sample: Thirty native Mandarin-speaking adults with moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss were recruited.Results: The hearing-impaired listeners showed significantly higher accuracy with NLFC-on than with NLFC-off for consonant and sentence recognition and the recognition performance improved with both NLFC-on and off as a function of increased length of use. The satisfaction score of sound-quality ratings for different types of sounds significantly increased with NLFC-on than with NLFC-off. The speech recognition results showed moderate to strong correlation with the unaided hearing thresholds.Conclusion: For native Mandarin-speaking listeners with hearing loss, the NLFC technology provided modest but significant improvement in Mandarin fricative and sentence recognition. Subjectively, the naturalness and overall preference of sound-quality satisfaction judgement also improved with NLFC.

Penggunaan Media Papan Flanel untuk Meningkatkan Kemampuan Mengenal Huruf Vokal dan Konsonan pada Anak Kelompok B di TKK Rherhedja 2

The research aims to: (1) know how to use the media on the flannel board in learning the recognition of vowels and consonants in group B TKK Rherhedja children. (2) Improve the ability of children in group B TKK Rherhedja 2 in recognizing vowels and consonants through the media flannel board. This research is a class action research (CAR), which is implemented in 2 cycles. The data collection techniques used are observation and documentation. The subject of this study was the children of group B at TTK Rherhedja 2 with a total of 18 people. The results of the research proved, (1) Media Flannel board already used well in learning to children group B in TTK Rherhedja 2. On cycle I, the percentage of applicability rate is 75% in good category and on cycle II increased to a very good category with a percentage of 95%. (2) Ability to recognize letters in group B Children in TKK Rherhedja 2 of the 18 children on the pre cycle, newly developed children were 6 peoples or 33.33%, children who started to grow were 9 peoples or 50%, children develop as expected were 3 peoples or 16.67% and very good child was 0%. After using the flannel board media, there was an increase in cycle I: children who were just developing 0%, children who were starting to develop were 6 peoples or 33.33%, children developing as expected were 12 peoples or 66,67%. In Cycle II there was an increase in the ability to recognize letters as follows: the percentage of children newly developing was 0%, the percentage of children starting to develop was 0%, the percentage of children developing as expected was 44.44% or 8 peoples, and very well developed children was 55.56% or 10 peoples. Thus, the Flannel Board Media can improve the ability of group B children in recognizing vowels and consonants in TKK Rherhedja

Auditory and auditory-visual frequency-band importance functions for consonant recognition.

The relative importance of individual frequency regions for speech intelligibility has been firmly established for broadband auditory-only (AO) conditions. Yet, speech communication often takes place face-to-face. This study tested the hypothesis that under auditory-visual (AV) conditions, where visual information is redundant with high-frequency auditory cues, lower frequency regions will increase in relative importance compared to AO conditions. Frequency band-importance functions for consonants were measured for eight hearing-impaired and four normal-hearing listeners. Speech was filtered into four 1/3-octave bands each separated by an octave to minimize energetic masking. On each trial, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in each band was selected randomly from a 10-dB range. AO and AV band-importance functions were estimated using three logistic-regression analyses: a primary model relating performance to the four independent SNRs; a control model that also included band-interaction terms; and a different set of four control models, each examining one band at a time. For both listener groups, the relative importance of the low-frequency bands increased under AV conditions, consistent with earlier studies using isolated speech bands. All three analyses showed similar results, indicating the absence of cross-band interactions. These results suggest that accurate prediction of AV speech intelligibility may require different frequency-importance functions than for AO conditions.

Assessment of Temporal Fine Structure Processing Among Older Adults With Cochlear Implants.

The purpose of this study was to determine if older adults with cochlear implants are able to take advantage of coding schemes that preserve temporal fine structure (TFS) cues. A total of 19 older adults with cochlear implants participated in a prospective, repeated measures, A to B design. Participants entered the study using TFS. The participants used strategy A (high definition continuous interleaved sampling [HDCIS]) for 3 months and strategy B (TFS) for 3 months. Endpoint testing was administered at the end of each 3-month period. Testing included consonant recognition, speech understanding in noise, temporal modulation thresholds, and self-perceived benefit. Older adults were able to use TFS successfully. Speech perception performance was improved using TFS compared with HDCIS for voicing, but not manner or place of articulation. There were no differences between the two strategies for speech understanding in noise, temporal modulation detection, or self-perceived benefit. At the end of the study, 13 out of 19 (68%) of participants chose to continue using TFS processing. Advanced age does not prevent adults with cochlear implants from using TFS coding strategies. Performance outcomes using TFS and HDCIS were similar, with the exception of voicing which was improved when using TFS. The data support the idea of using various sound processing strategies with older adults.

Confusion analysis in phoneme based speech recognition in Hindi

Phoneme recognition is an essential step in the development of a speech recognition system (SRS), as phonemes are fundamental building blocks in a spoken language. This research work aimed to present phoneme recognition with systematic confusion analysis for the Hindi language. The accuracy of phoneme recognition is the foundation for developing an efficient SRS. Therefore, the systematic confusion analysis for phoneme recognition is essential to improve speech recognition performance. Experiments conducted on Continuous Hindi speech corpus for phoneme recognition with speaker-dependent mode using Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based tool kit HTK. Feature extraction technique Perceptual Linear Predictive Coefficient (PLP) was used with five states Monophones HMM model. Tests were performed for exploring the recognition of Hindi vowels and consonants. Confusion matrices were presented for both vowels and consonants with analysis and possible solutions. During systematic analysis, the vowels were divided into front, middle, and back vowels while consonants were categorized based on place of articulation and manner of articulation. Research findings show that some Hindi phonemes have significant effects on speech recognition. The investigations also reveal that some Hindi phonemes are mostly confused, and some phonemes have more deletions and insertions. The research further demonstrates that the words made of less number of phonemes show more insertion errors. It was also found that most of the Hindi sentences end with some specific words. These particular words can be used to reduce the search place in language modeling for improving speech recognition. The research findings can be utilized to enhance the performance of the speech recognition system by selecting suitable feature extraction techniques and classification techniques for phonemes. The outcome of the research can also be used to develop improved pronunciation dictionaries and designing the text for developing phonetically balanced speech corpus for improvement in speech recognition. Experimental results show an average corrected recognition score of 70% for vowel class and consonant categories, the maximum average corrected recognition score of 94% was obtained with palatal sounds, and the lowest average corrected recognition score of 54% was achieved with liquid sounds. The comparative analysis of the presented work was made to similar existing works.

Effects of temporal distortions on consonant perception with and without undistorted visual speech cues.

Effects of temporal distortions on consonant perception were measured using locally time-reversed nonsense syllables. Consonant recognition was measured in both audio and audio-visual modalities for assessing whether the addition of visual speech cues can recover consonant errors caused by time reversing. The degradation in consonant recognition depended highly on the manner of articulation, with sibilant fricatives, affricates, and nasals showing the least degradation. Because consonant errors induced by time reversing were primarily in voicing and place-of-articulation (mostly limited to stop-plosives and non-sibilant fricatives), undistorted visual speech cues could resolve only about half the errors (i.e., only place-of-articulation errors).

Age-sensitive associations of segmental and suprasegmental perception with sentence-level language skills in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants

Background and aimIt remains unclear how recognition of segmental and suprasegmental phonemes contributes to sentence-level language processing skills in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs). Our study examined the influence of implantation age on the recognition of consonants, lexical tones and sentences respectively, and more importantly, the contribution of phonological skills to sentence repetition accuracy in Mandarin-speaking children with CIs. MethodsThe participants were three groups of prelingually deaf children who received cochlear implants at various ages and their age-matched controls with normal hearing. Three tasks were administered to assess their consonant perception, lexical tone recognition and language skills in open-set sentence repetition. ResultsChildren with CIs lagged behind NH peers in all the three tests, and performances on segmental, suprasegmental and sentence-level processing were differentially modulated by implantation age. Furthermore, performances on recognition of consonants and lexical tones were significant predictors of sentence repetition accuracy in the children with CIs. ConclusionOverall, segmental and suprasegmental perception as well as sentence-level processing is impaired in Mandarin-speaking children with CIs compared with age-matched children with NH. In children with CIs recognition of segmental and suprasegmental phonemes at the lower level predicts sentence repetition accuracy at the higher level. More importantly, implantation age plays an important role in the development of phonological skills and higher-order language skills, suggesting that age-appropriate aural rehabilitation and speech intervention programs need to be developed in order to better help CI users who receive CIs at different ages.

Enhancement of Consonant Recognition in Bimodal and Normal Hearing Listeners.

The present study investigated the effects of 3-dimensional deep search (3DDS) signal processing on the enhancement of consonant perception in bimodal and normal hearing listeners. Using an articulation-index gram and 3DDS signal processing, consonant segments that greatly affected performance were identified and intensified with a 6-dB gain. Then consonant recognition was measured unilaterally and bilaterally before and after 3DDS processing both in quiet and noise. The 3DDS signal processing provided a benefit to both groups, with greater benefit occurring in noise than quiet. The benefit rendered by 3DDS was the greatest in binaural listening condition. Ability to integrate acoustic features across ears was also enhanced with 3DDS processing. In listeners with normal hearing, manner and place of articulation were improved in binaural listening condition. In bimodal listeners, voicing and manner and place of articulation were also improved in bimodal and hearing aid ear-alone conditions. Consonant recognition was improved with 3DDS in both groups. This observed benefit suggests 3DDS can be used as an auditory training tool for improved integration and for bimodal users who receive little or no benefit from their current bimodal hearing.