Mandarin-speaking Children Research Articles

Lexical effects on spoken word recognition performance among Mandarin-speaking children with normal hearing and cochlear implants

Objective This investigation aimed to examine the effects of word frequency and lexical neighborhood density on spoken word recognition of monosyllables and disyllables in Mandarin by normal hearing children and children with cochlear implants. The lexical characteristics were incorporated from the Neighborhood Activation Model (NAM), which suggests that words in the mental lexicon are organized into similarity neighborhoods. The difficulty of a listener's task is affected by the frequency of the target word and the density of the lexical neighbors from which that word must be identified. The Monosyllabic Lexical Neighborhood Test and the Disyllabic Lexical Neighborhood Test in Mandarin Chinese (Mandarin LNT and MLNT) were developed to take into account the effects of these linguistic and cognitive demands on speech perception performance. Methods Three stages were conducted in this investigation. In the first stage, Mandarin words of monosyllables and disyllables were selected and their lexical properties were calculated from the CHILDES database. Four lexically “easy” and four lexically “hard” word lists in Mandarin LNT as well as two word lists across lexical properties among disyllables were determined based on their relative word frequencies and neighborhood densities. In the second stage, word stimuli were verified by 30 children of the NH group and 36 children from the CI group. In the third stage, the inter-list equivalency and test–retest reliability of word lists across lexical properties were determined, and the correlations of Mandarin LNT and MLNT with other measures and inter-rater reliability were also investigated. Results Word recognition scores were higher among disyllables than among monosyllables. Lexically “easy” disyllabic words were better recognized than their “hard” counterparts and the monosyllables among two groups of children. However, no lexical effects on word recognition of Mandarin monosyllables were observed for either group. No significant differences were found among word lists in each combination of syllable structure and lexical property. Inter-rater reliability, inter-list equivalency, and test–retest reliability were revealed. The Mandarin LNT and MLNT were found to be highly reliable measures of spoken word recognition ( r = 0.84; p < 0.01) with acceptable equivalency between lists ( r = 0.638–0.876). Conclusion Lexical effects on Mandarin word recognition were only demonstrated among disyllabic words by NH and the CI children, while Mandarin homophones appearing in monosyllabic words were suggested. Lexical effects on spoken word recognition in Mandarin are not substantially demonstrated as in English, but the Mandarin LNT and MLNT provided reliable information on the spoken word recognition of pediatric CI users in the initial stage after implantation as well as in the rehabilitation progress.

Focus identification in child Mandarin

In this study, we investigated how Mandarin-speaking children and adults interpret focus structures like Zhiyou Yuehan chi-le pingguo 'Only John ate an apple' and Shi Yuehan chi-de pingguo 'It is John who ate an apple'. We found that children tended to associate focus operators zhiyou 'only' and shi 'be' with the verb phrase (VP), whereas adults uniquely associated them with the subject noun phrase (NP). To account for this difference, we propose that children initially treat focus operators as adverbials, thus ending up associating them with the VP. In order to assess our proposal, we examined children's understanding of zhiyou-constructions with negation, like Zhiyou Yuehan meiyou chi pingguo 'Only John didn't eat an apple'. It was found that children, like adults, consistently associated the focus operator with the subject NP in this construction. The findings have an important bearing on language learnability, since negation assists children in reaching the adult-like interpretation.

The Influence of Adult Input on Children’s Early Word Learning: A Case Study of A Mandarin-Speaking Child

Children's early vocabulary development is not linear.At the outset,word learning is very slow.However,by approximately 19 months of age,children's vocabulary rapidly expands,entering the phase of the spurt.The phenomenon of breaking word learning's bottleneck can be interpreted by several theories,such as constraint theories which emphasize innate cognitive biases,socialpragmatic theories emphasizing the role of social and linguistic environments,and associationistic views involving computations of the co-occurrence between words and their referents in naturalistic speech.However,these theories cannot account by themselves for cross-linguistic differences or similarities across children,despite differences in input-didn't really understand this parenthesis.Although the updated theory of Emergentist Coalition Model(ECM) combines early use of attentional cues with later use of social inputs and linguistic cues,it cannot account for the consistent cross-linguistic differences appearing at the very beginning of children's vocabulary which correspond to linguistic features and social inputs.Such differences,particularly the composition of verbs and nouns in children's early vocabularies,challenge the theory of Noun bias supported by many researchers.Thus,whether children can use social and linguistic cues in the beginning of word development,noun and verb acquisition in particular,is of interest for this paper.Although there are many studies investigating the relationship between adult's speech input and children's early language development,they do not reveal the regularity and developmental changes both in caregivers' input and infants' word acquisition.Furthermore,none of these studies focused on Chinese,a language with vastly different linguistic properties from English.A longitudinal case method with a Chinese female infant was used.Tracking the infant from 6-to 20-months of age,the researcher visited the family monthly for one-hour recordings of naturalistic interaction.The naturalistic data on caregiver-to-child input were transcribed into CHAT format and analyzed with the CLAN program,counting the frequency of nouns and verbs and word position in caregivers' utterances.Then,the development of child's comprehension and production vocabulary was assessed by both observed data and the Putonghua version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory(PCDI).Seven spontaneous speech samples(6,10,11,13,15,17 and 19 months) were analyzed.In addition,the study also focused on the roles of specific contexts of caregivers' input,selecting three contexts in the naturalistic data(booking reading,feeding and playing).The caregivers were found to produce more verb than in tokens and types in most samples,although the difference was significant only for tokens.The position in caregivers' utterances was favorable for verbs,but not nouns,with many verbs dropping subjects and objects.However,the ratio of verbs and nouns varied with specific context.The frequency of nouns was higher relative to verbs in the booking reading context,but verbs were more frequent in both the feeding and playing contexts.In addition,more verbs than nouns were found in the child's early vocabulary,regardless of how they were measured and this corresponded to the caregivers' speech input.Specifically,the child could both comprehend and produce higher ratios of verbs than nouns with the CDI measure,and produced a larger cumulative number of verbs than nouns up to the 15 month.Children can use linguistic input in their vocabulary acquisition even at the very beginning of language development.The dominance of verbs in Chinese adults' speech influences children's early word composition,with more verbs than nouns in both comprehension and production.This result again supports the view of cross-linguistic differences but not the noun bias in children's early vocabularies.In addition,the frequency of verbs and nouns varies with specific context.

Development of the Mandarin Early Speech Perception Test: Children with Normal Hearing and the Effects of Dialect Exposure

The first objective of this study was to create a recorded Mandarin Early Speech Perception (MESP) test based on the English Early Speech Perception test (), a closed-set assessment tool for evaluation of early speech perception abilities in children. The second objective was to determine whether each of the MESP subtests is appropriate for children with these abilities. The third objective was to examine the effects of early exposure to and use of Putonghua (Standard Mandarin), as used for the recordings, on performance for each subtest. MESP test items were developed by sampling approximately 200 picturable words, twice the number required for the test, from Chinese children's books. A sample (N = 17) of 2.0- to 5.0-yr-old developmentally normal children identified the words from pictures and then recognized the words when tested with live voice by pointing to the pictures. Only words that were accurately identified and recognized by children of all ages were selected. An additional sample (N = 92) of 2.0- to 5.0-yr-old developmentally normal children was tested with the subtests of the MESP. Information about each child's daily Putonghua exposure and use was used to separate the sample into two groups. Subtest scores for the two groups were compared to examine the effects of early dialect exposure on performance. Fewer than 2% of the words used in the six subtests of the MESP were incorrectly named and recognized. Each subtest measures a different category of early speech perception. The categories are hierarchically structured. Categories 1, 2, and 3, Speech Sound Detection, Speech Pattern Perception, and Spondee Recognition, parallel the ESP. Categories 4, 5, and 6 of the MESP, Vowel Perception, Consonant Perception, and Tone Perception, are more difficult tests that provide information about segmental and tonal cues for Mandarin speech perception. All children in all age groups reached all MESP categories successfully, with the exception of three children in the youngest age group for the Tone Perception test. The two oldest groups of children who were not exposed primarily to Putonghua had slightly lower scores on both the Consonant and Tone Perception tests than children who were primarily exposed to Putonghua. These results suggest that development of tone perception continues beyond the MESP age range. Nonetheless, children as young as 2 yr of age could be tested on all of the MESP subtests. The development of the MESP has produced a recorded objective test for the evaluation of early speech perception in Mandarin-speaking children using a standardized protocol. The hierarchical structure of the first three MESP categories parallels that of the ESP, while restricting the occurrence of some tones. Additional MESP categories allow control and variation of Mandarin segmental and tonal contrasts. The MESP is part of a Mandarin hierarchical test battery for assessment of speech perception in young children.

Tone Discrimination and Speech Perception Benefit in Mandarin-Speaking Children Fit With HiRes Fidelity 120 Sound Processing

To compare tone discrimination, speech perception, and general listening benefit in Mandarin-speaking children using standard HiRes and after 1, 3, and 6 months of HiRes 120 use. The HiResolution Bionic Ear is an implantable prosthesis designed to provide access to sound and to improve perception of speech via electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. The newest sound-processing strategy is HiRes with Fidelity 120 (HiRes 120). In HiRes 120, the input signal is analyzed in greater spectral detail than with original HiRes to achieve a maximum of 120 spectral bands. HiRes 120 is expected to provide more benefit than the original HiRes because of the increased spectral resolution. Cochlear implant/tertiary referral center. Seven children, aged 5 to 12 years, who had been implanted with a CII or 90K implant with a fully inserted electrode array and at least 10 contiguous programmable electrodes. Tone discrimination, consonant identification, the Mandarin lexical neighborhood test (M-LNT), and the speech perception in noise (SPIN) tests were administered in 4 sessions: at a baseline visit with standard HiRes before being fit with HiRes 120 and at 1, 3, and 6 months after using HiRes 120. Each subject and his or her parents also completed a strategy preference questionnaire after using HiRes 120 for 6 months. Statistically significant improvements from baseline with HiRes to 6 months with HiRes 120 were found for tone discrimination (61.4 to 73.2%, p = 0.006) and for SPIN low predictability (65.7 to 74.7%, p = 0.039). Mean score changes of 47.4 to 50.4% (p = 0.499) for consonant perception, 82.9 to 86.4% for M-LNT (easy words; p = 0.322), 77.1 to 81.0% for M-LNT (hard words; p = 0.423), and 72.3 to 78.5% for SPIN high predictability (p = 0.427) showed trends for improvement but were not statistically significant. Questionnaire results indicated that all children and parents preferred HiRes 120 to HiRes. Strength of preference was 8.9 for children and 8.1 for parents on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = weak preference, 10 = strong preference). Taken together, the improved tone discrimination and speech perception results, along with subjective improvements in speech fluency, discrimination, and music appreciation, indicate a trend toward superior listening benefit with HiRes 120 compared with standard HiRes in Mandarin-speaking children.

Lexical Tone Perception with HiResolution and HiResolution 120 Sound-Processing Strategies in Pediatric Mandarin-Speaking Cochlear Implant Users

Lexical tone recognition tends to be poor in cochlear implant users. The HiResolution (HiRes) sound-processing strategy is designed to better preserve temporal fine structure, or the detailed envelope information, of an acoustic signal. The newer HiRes 120 strategy builds on HiRes by increasing the amount of potential spectral information delivered to the implant user. The purpose of this study was to examine lexical tone recognition in native Mandarin Chinese-speaking children with cochlear implants using the HiRes and HiRes 120 sound-processing strategies. Tone recognition performance was tested with HiRes at baseline and then after up to 6 mo of HiRes 120 experience in the same subjects. Twenty prelingually deafened, native Mandarin-speaking children, with ages ranging from 3.5 to 16.5 yr, participated. All children completed a computerized tone contrast test on three occasions: (1) using HiRes immediately before conversion to HiRes 120 (baseline), (2) 1 mo after conversion, and (3) 3 mo after conversion. Twelve of the 20 children also were tested 6 mo after conversion. In addition, the parents of 18 children completed a questionnaire at the 3-mo follow-up visit regarding the preference of sound-processing strategies and the children's experience related to various aspects of auditory perception and speech production using HiRes 120. As a group, no statistically significant differences were seen between the tone recognition scores using HiRes and HiRes 120. Individual scores showed great variability. Tone recognition performance ranged from chance (50% correct) to nearly perfect. Using the conventional HiRes strategy, 6 of the 20 children achieved high-level tone recognition performance (i.e., >or=90% correct), whereas 7 performed at a level not significantly different from chance (50-60% correct). At the final test, either 3 or 6 mo after conversion, all children achieved tone recognition performance with HiRes 120 that was equal to or better than that with HiRes, although some children's tone recognition performance was worse initially at the 1 or 3 mo follow-up intervals than at baseline. Eight of the 20 children showed statistically significant improvement in tone recognition performance with HiRes 120 on at least one of the follow-up tests. Age at implantation was correlated with tone recognition performance at all four test intervals. Parents of most of the children indicated that the children preferred HiRes 120 more than HiRes. As a group, HiRes 120 did not provide significantly improved lexical tone recognition compared to HiRes, at least throughout the length of the study (up to 6 mo). There were large individual differences in lexical tone recognition among the prelingually deafened, native Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants using either HiRes or HiRes 120. Six of the 20 children performed at or near ceiling in the baseline HiRes condition. Of the remainder, approximately half showed significantly better tone recognition when subsequently tested with HiRes 120, although the extent to which this improvement may be attributable to factors other than the change in processing strategy (e.g., general development) is unknown. The children who benefited most from HiRes 120 tended to be those who were implanted at younger ages.

Phonological Competence in Mandarin Chinese-Speaking Children with Cleft Palate

The purpose of the present study was to document the phonological processes used by children with a cleft palate who speak Mandarin Chinese and to compare their speech production to children who do not present with a history of cleft palate. The subjects consisted of 20 children with histories of cleft palate and 20 noncleft children matched for age and gender. All subjects spoke Mandarin Chinese as their first language. The children's whole word productions were analyzed for frequency of occurrence and type of phonological process usage. It was found that children with cleft palate tended to use phonological processes more frequently than their noncleft peers. The similarities and differences in phonological process use are documented and discussed in the context of previous research. This study provides evidence for the need for phonological assessment and management of Mandarin-speaking children with a history of cleft palate.

Scope assignment in child language: Evidence from the acquisition of Chinese

In this paper, we investigated how Mandarin-speaking children and adults understand the scope relation between the universal quantifier and negation in sentences like Mei-pi ma dou meiyou tiaoguo liba ‘Every horse didn’t jump over the fence’ and Bushi mei-pi ma dou tiaoguo-le liba ‘Not every horse jumped over fence’. We found that Mandarin-speaking children accepted these two types of sentences in both the surface scope and the inverse scope scenarios, whereas Mandarin-speaking adults only permitted them in the surface scope scenarios. The findings of this study, combined with previous research with English-speaking children, invite the conclusion that children start off with a flexible scope relation between the universal quantifier and negation. Children's grammar allows flexibility in the mappings between syntax and semantics.

Effects of frequency allocation on lexical tone identification by Mandarin-speaking children with a cochlear implant

Conclusion. Frequency allocation with extended frequency ranges yielded significantly higher accuracy in pediatric CI recipients’ lexical tone identification. These findings suggest that frequency allocation with extended frequency ranges may be useful in improving lexical tone recognition for at least some pediatric CI recipients. Objectives. To assess the effects of frequency allocation on lexical tone identification by Mandarin-speaking children with a cochlear implant (CI). Subjects and methods. In a prospective study, 15 prelingually deafened children between 7.17 and 16.17 years of age served as participants. Using Med-el CI devices, each participant's accuracy in lexical tone identification was compared in two conditions: first, the experimental condition, i.e. use of the extended frequency range from 233 to 8501 Hz; second, the control condition, i.e. use of the participant's clinically assigned frequency range from 300 to 8404 Hz. Results. The group mean of pediatric CI users’ accuracy in lexical tone identification was 88.02% (SD = 6.31%) in the experimental condition and 83.82% (SD = 9.84%) in the control condition. The group mean was 4.20% (SD = 5.48%) higher in the experimental condition than that in the control condition; this difference was statistically significant (t(14) = 2.97, p=0.010).

Lexical tone and word recognition in noise of Mandarin-speaking children who use cochlear implants and hearing aids in opposite ears

The benefits of bimodal hearing (cochlear implant and hearing aid in opposite ears) in children are well documented in English-speaking populations (Ching et al., 2000; Holt et al., 2005) but not much evidence has been reported from populations using tonal languages. The lexical tones in tonal languages are heavily loaded with semantic and grammatical information, which are essentially represented by the fundamental frequency (F0) and low-order harmonics of the speech signal. This unique linguistic feature means that tonal language-speaking CI recipients may achieve more bimodal benefits than their non-tonal language peers may. Twenty Mandarin-speaking children using the Nucleus 24 cochlear implant system and a hearing aid on the non-implant ear were assigned to either one of the two groups to investigate the head-shadow and binaural redundancy effects. A computerized speech test – MAPPID-N (Yuen et al., 2007) was used to present Mandarin lexical tones in monosyllabic words, and disyllabic words with a four- and eight-alternative forced choice picture-identification task, respectively. Individualized signal-to-noise ratio was used to capture the speech scores in the 30%–70% range and was fixed throughout the CI alone and bimodal experimental conditions. Hearing aid fitting was optimized before the first test phase, which was followed by the second test phase after three months. Significant head shadow but not binaural redundancy benefits were observed, suggesting that subjects have not yet developed central binaural processing abilities to improve speech recognition when speech and noise are mixed, in the bimodal condition, in this group of Mandarin-speaking paediatric CI recipients. No subject experienced any degradation of performance in the bimodal versus the CI-only test condition. This may be the first study that demonstrated the bimodal benefits in CI paediatric recipients speaking tonal language, particularly in lexical tone perception. Hearing aid amplification for the non-implant ear should be a standard for the paediatric tonal-language CI population. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lexical tone and word recognition in noise of Mandarin-speaking children who use cochlear implants and hearing aids in opposite ears

Lexical tone and word recognition in noise of Mandarin-speaking children who use cochlear implants and hearing aids in opposite ears

Development of the Mandarin pediatric speech intelligibility (MPSI) test

The objective of this research was to create a Mandarin closed-set sentence recognition test based on the English pediatric speech intelligibility (PSI) test (Jerger & Jerger, ) for evaluation of speech perception in children as young as three years of age. Developmentally normal children (N = 93), 3–6 years of age, were administered the Mandarin PSI (MPSI) via a computer-controlled protocol. Perfect performance was observed for all children in quiet and at +10 and +5 dB signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Significant age and developmental trends were seen for the more difficult SNRs, 0 dB, −5 dB, and −10 dB, with 75% of 5–6 year olds reaching the most difficult SNR. Children who reached each of the more difficult SNRs, regardless of age, exhibited the same pattern of performance on all easier conditions, indicating that the final SNR achieved, rather than percent correct scores, may be a better descriptor of performance. The MPSI comprises part of a hierarchical assessment battery for pediatric speech perception for evaluation of intervention alternatives for Mandarin-speaking children with hearing impairment.

Development of the computerized Mandarin Pediatric Lexical Tone and Disyllabic-word Picture Identification Test in Noise (MAPPID-N)

MAPPID-N was developed to assess the speech-recognition abilities in noise of Mandarin-speaking children on disyllabic words, and lexical tones in monosyllabic words, in a picture-identification test format. Twenty-six normal-hearing children aged four to nine years listened repeatedly to the test materials where noise was spatially mixed with or separated from speech, in different signal-to-noise (SNR) ratios, to obtain performance-SNR functions and SNR for 50% correct scores (SNR-50%). SNR-50% improved with age only when noise was spatially separated from speech but not when noise was mixed with speech, suggesting the improvement with age in the use of intensity and timing cues differences between the two ears. The homogeneity of the test items was improved by adjusting the intensity levels of individual test items to align their SNR-50% to the mean SNR-50% level. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Development and evaluation of methods for assessing tone production skills in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants

The aim of the study was (1) to develop methods for evaluating tone production of children with cochlear implants (CIs) who speak Mandarin Chinese and (2) to evaluate the efficacy of using these methods to assess tone production. The subjects included two groups of native-Mandarin-Chinese-speaking children: 14 prelingually deafened children who had received CIs and 61 normal-hearing (NH) children as controls. The acoustic analysis focused on quantification of the degree of differentiation among lexical tones based on tonal ellipses and the overall similarity of tone contours produced by the children with CIs to normative contours derived from the 61 NH children. An artificial neural network was used to recognize tones produced by the children with CIs after trained with tone tokens produced by the NH children. Finally, perceptual judgments on the tone production of both groups were obtained from eight native-Mandarin-speaking NH adults to evaluate the efficacy of the methods. The results showed that all measures using the acoustic, neural-network, and perceptual analyses were highly correlated with each other and could be used to effectively evaluate tone production of children with CIs.

&lt;B&gt;"But I first... and then he kept picking"&lt;/B&gt;&lt;BR&gt; Narrative skill in Mandarin-speaking children with language impairment

This study investigates the narrative skill of school-aged children with language impairment in Taiwan. Twelve children, 6 children with language impairment (LI) and 6 children with typical language development (TLD), aged from 8;0 to 9;5 participated in this study. They were asked to tell three personally experienced stories and the longest one was selected and coded along four dimensions, i.e., narrative structure, conjunction, referential strategies, and discourse context. The revision of the Chinese Narrative Assessment Profile (NAP) was also used to score children’s narrative performance. Results show that the children with LI had more difficulties in producing clear, coherent narratives. In comparison with the stories narrated by children with TLD, the stories produced by children with LI exhibited fewer narrative components, evaluation devices, and connectives, but more ambiguous referencing information was evident in their narratives. The narrative profile of each child with LI, however, varied. Limitations of this study and suggestions for further research on narrative skill in children with LI were provided.

Acquisition of English Grammatical Morphology by Native Mandarin-Speaking Children and Adolescents: Age-Related Differences

This 5-year longitudinal study investigated the acquisition of 6 English grammatical morphemes (i.e., regular and irregular past tense, 3rd person singular, progressive aspect -ing, copula BE, and auxiliary DO) by 10 native Mandarin-speaking children and adolescents in the United States (arrived in the United States between 5 and 16 years of age). The goals were to chart and compare the acquisition trajectories and levels of mastery across the morphemes, identify when age-related differences emerged and which forms they took. Morphological proficiency was measured by the accuracy of these morphemes in obligatory contexts during spontaneous speech. The morphemes were mastered by different numbers of participants and showed different growth trajectories. Performance variance was partially predicted by age of arrival (AoAr) in the United States, with early arrivals achieving greater proficiency than late arrivals. However, such AoAr effects took several years to occur and only existed for 2 of the 6 morphemes (i.e., 3rd person singular and regular past tense). Growth curve analysis revealed that language environment was a stronger predictor of individual differences than AoAr. Results did not uncover age-related differences in the acquisition of tense versus non-tense-related morphemes, nor in regular versus irregular morphemes, nor in the error types. Findings support an Environmental account for age-related differences in 2nd language (L2) morphological acquisition. Results also indicate that the acquisition of some grammatical morphemes by school-aged immigrants takes several years to complete. As L2 learners exhibit some error types and difficulties similar to monolingual children with specific language impairment, caution needs to be taken when interpreting and using morphological errors as indicators of speech/language learning problems in this population.

Pediatric cochlear implantation in Taiwan: Long-term communication outcomes

Cochlear implantation is an established method of auditory rehabilitation for severely and profoundly hearing impaired individuals. Although numerous studies have examined communication outcomes in pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients, data concerning the benefits of cochlear implantation in children who speak Mandarin Chinese are lacking. This study examined communication outcomes in 29 Mandarin-speaking children implanted at Chung Gung Memorial Hospital. A prospective between-groups design was used to compare communication outcomes as a function of age at time of implantation. Children in the Younger group were implanted before 3 years of age, whereas children in the Older group were implanted after 3 years of age. Outcome measures assessed auditory thresholds, speech perception, speech intelligibility, receptive and expressive language skills, communication barriers, and communication mode. Correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between communication outcome and age at implantation. Children in the Younger group demonstrated a significant level of difference on Mandarin vowels, consonants, tones, and open-set speech perception compared with the children in the Older group. Between-group differences were also shown on receptive and expressive language skills. But, no significant differences were noted on speech intelligibility or in self-ratings of communication barriers. A larger proportion of children in the Younger group used oral communication and were educated in mainstream classrooms. Communication mode change of the Younger group reached a significant level after cochlear implant. Speech perception performance was negatively correlated with age at implantation as well as chronological age. Mandarin-speaking children can obtain substantial communication benefits from cochlear implantation, with earlier implantation yielding superior results.

Effects of Computer-Assisted Speech Training on Mandarin-Speaking Hearing-Impaired Children

The present study investigated whether moderate amounts of computer-assisted speech training can improve the speech recognition performance of hearing-impaired children. Ten Mandarin-speaking children (3 hearing aid users and 7 cochlear implant users) participated in the study. Training was conducted at home using a personal computer for half an hour per day, 5 days per week, for a period of 10 weeks. Results showed significant improvements in subjects’ vowel, consonant, and tone recognition performance after training. The improved performance was largely retained for 2 months after training was completed. These results suggest that moderate amounts of auditory training, using a computer-based auditory rehabilitation tool with minimal supervision, can be effective in improving the speech performance of hearing-impaired children.

Recognition of lexical tone production of children with an artificial neural network

Conclusion. This study demonstrated that the artificial neural network can successfully classify Mandarin Chinese tone patterns produced by multiple children. The neural network can be used as an objective way of evaluating tone production of children. Objectives. Traditionally, tone production is evaluated subjectively using human listeners. The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of using an artificial neural network in evaluating tone production of Mandarin-speaking children. Subjects and methods. Speech materials were recorded from 61 normal-hearing children. The fundamental frequency (F0) of each monosyllabic word was extracted and then used as inputs to a feed-forward backpropagation artificial neural network. The number of inputs was set at 12, whereas the number of hidden neurons was set at 16 in the neural network. The output layer consisted of four neurons representing the four Mandarin tone patterns. The tone recognition performance of the neural network was further compared with that of native Mandarin-speaking adult listeners. Results. The neural network successfully classified the tone patterns of the 61 child speakers with an accuracy of about 85% correct. This high accuracy exceeded the tone recognition performance by the adult listeners. Individual child speakers showed varied tone production accuracy as recognized by the adult listeners or by the neural network.

Linking early narrative skill to later language and reading ability in Mandarin-speaking children

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between Mandarin Chinese-speaking children’s narrative skill in telling personally experienced stories in preschool and their later language and reading ability. Fourteen Mandarin-speaking children, 8 boys and 6 girls, were visited at home when they were 3;6, 7;5, and 10;1. The children were asked to tell personal narratives to the experimenter at 3;6 and 7;5 and to complete word definition, receptive vocabulary, and Chinese reading comprehension tests at 7;5 and 10;1. Two of the children’s stories with the greatest number of narrative clauses were selected and measured using adaptations of the narrative assessment profile developed by McCabe and Bliss (2003). A number of significant positive correlations were observed between the children’s narrative skills and their receptive vocabulary, definition, and reading comprehension abilities. These findings suggest that the children who had good narrative skill in preschool also performed better in reading comprehension and language tasks in primary school. This study shows that the continuous and interrelated relationship between early oral narrative and later language and literacy is evident not only in English-speaking children but also in Mandarin-speaking children. The educational implications for this study are highlighted.