ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To compare narrative skills between fourth and fifth grades of Persian-speaking students with hearing impairments and typical hearing students of the same grade and also to evaluate the effects of group, sex, hearing age, and educational grade of the students on their spoken/written narrative performance. METHODS: The subjects were 174 students aged 10–13 years, 54 of whom wore cochlear implants, 60 suffered from moderate to severe hearing losses and wore hearing aids, with the remaining 60 students being typical hearing in terms of the sense of hearing. The micro- and macrostructure components of spoken and written narrative were elicited from a pictorial story (The Playful Little Elephant) and then scored by raters. RESULTS: Compared to the typical hearing, the students with hearing impairments had significantly lower scores in all of the microstructure components of narratives. However, the findings showed no significant difference among different groups in macrostructure components of narratives. It was also revealed that the students had equal performance in spoken and written narrative. Finally, factor analysis manifested that group, sex, hearing age, and educational level of children might alter the outcome measures in various interactions. CONCLUSION: Although cochlear implantation was more effective than hearing aid on spoken and written narrative skills, the Persian-speaking students with hearing impairments were seen to need additional trainings on microstructure components of spoken/written narrative.
Subject(s)
Child , Humans , Cochlear Implantation , Cochlear Implants , Hearing Aids , Hearing Loss , Hearing , Narration , Outcome Assessment, Health CareABSTRACT
The aim of present study is to evaluate and compare speech intelligibility in hearing impaired children with cochlear implants (CI) and hearing aid (HA) users and children with normal hearing (NH). The sample consisted of 45 Persian-speaking children aged 3 to 5-years-old. They were divided into three groups, and each group had 15, children, children with CI and children using hearing aids in Hamadan. Participants was evaluated by the test of speech intelligibility level. Results of ANOVA on speech intelligibility test showed that NH children had significantly better reading performance than hearing impaired children with CI and HA. Post-hoc analysis, using Scheffe test, indicated that the mean score of speech intelligibility of normal children was higher than the HA and CI groups; but the difference was not significant between mean of speech intelligibility in children with hearing loss that use cochlear implant and those using HA. It is clear that even with remarkabkle advances in HA technology, many hearing impaired children continue to find speech production a challenging problem. Given that speech intelligibility is a key element in proper communication and social interaction, consequently, educational and rehabilitation programs are essential to improve speech intelligibility of children with hearing loss.
Subject(s)
Child , Humans , Cochlear Implants , Hearing Aids , Hearing Loss , Hearing , Interpersonal Relations , Rehabilitation , Speech IntelligibilityABSTRACT
Background and Objectives: Multiple Sclerosis [MS] is a progressive neurologic disorder characterized by wide clinical features. Some voice features and signs of these patients are used by speech therapists for differential diagnosis for its speech disorders. The aim of present study was to compare some vocal and respiratory indices of MS patients with normal subjects in Ahvaz city
Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional analytic study, 30 patients with Multiple Sclerosis and 30 normal subjects [aged between 21 to 50 years] were compared based on Fundamental frequency [F0] and Maximum Phonation Time [MPT]. Dr.Speech software was used for speech analysis and SPSS program was applied for data analysis
Results: Mean of fundamental frequency in male and female patients was 130.53 +/- 68.11 and 194.91 +/- 33.12 Hz, respectively; and also mean of maximum phonation time in male and female patients was 11.25 +/- 2.71 and 9.21 +/- 2.32 seconds, respectively. Also, mean of fundamental frequency in male and female was 135.62 +/- 46.25 and 217.16 +/- 17.21 Hz, respectively; and mean of maximum phonation time in normal subjects was 23.73 +/- 3.62 and 19.30 +/- 3.44 seconds, respectively. Patients with MS had lower scores and significant differences than the control group in all the studied variables [p<0.001]
Conclusion: It seems that variations of F0 and MPT are two respiro-vocal features that could be used for speech features differential diagnosis of MS patients from normal subjects