Phonological acquisition in bilingual children with cochlear implants

描述(申请人提供)：本研究的长期目标是发现使用人工耳蜗术的双语儿童是如何获得其目标语言的语音系统的，而一个关键的问题是，我们对双语听力损失儿童言语发展的基本了解极其有限。活着的双语儿童 在美国，儿童面临得不到适当的诊断和干预言语和语言服务的风险；这是一个对使用人工耳蜗的双语儿童来说更加关键的医疗保健问题。这项研究的结果将通过提供有关言语习得的经验数据，帮助临床医生在评估和治疗植入人工耳蜗术的双语儿童的言语和语言方面做出更明智的决定。拟议项目的目标将通过全面分析双语儿童的语音系统，并与听力正常的双语儿童和只会说英语的人工耳蜗术儿童进行比较，来实现拟议项目的目标。本研究有两个具体的目的：(1)通过比较双语儿童和听力正常的双语儿童的语音技能，来考察听觉信号减弱的影响；(2)通过比较双语儿童和单语英语儿童的语音技能，来考察跨语言的影响。这些目标将通过进行一系列全面的分析来调查使用人工耳蜗术的双语儿童的言语习得，并将他们与听力正常的双语同龄人和接受人工耳蜗术的单语同龄人进行比较。一般的音韵学测量，特殊的言语分析，以及听觉理解和言语感知的测量将被用来比较这些儿童群体的表现。这些分析包括已用于单语儿童人工耳蜗术的测量(如分段准确度)，以及对双语儿童人工耳蜗术目标人群的新颖分析(例如，语音全词测量)。关于植入人工耳蜗的双语儿童言语发展的研究有限，涉及同一人群的语音技能的综合分析几乎不存在。此外，关于植入人工耳蜗的儿童双语语言发展的研究提供了关于是否推荐使用两种语言的相互矛盾的信息。这项拟议的研究将解决这两个问题，填补目前阻碍该领域进步的关键知识空白，为植入人工耳蜗的双语儿童的言语发展奠定基础。此外，拟议的研究结果还将对临床实践产生影响，为使用人工耳蜗术的双语儿童的语音系统发展提供信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of this research is to discover how bilingual children who use cochlear implants acquire the phonological systems of their target languages, and a critical problem is that our fundamental understanding of speech development in bilingual children with hearing loss is extremely limited. Bilingual children living in the US are at risk for not receiving appropriate diagnostic and intervention speech and language services; a health care issue that is even more critical for bilingual children who are cochlear implant users. Results from this study will help clinicians make more informed decisions regarding the assessment and treatment of the speech and language of bilingual children with cochlear implants by providing empirical data on speech acquisition. The goals of the proposed project will be met via comprehensive analyses of the phonological systems of bilingual children with cochlear implants and through comparisons to bilingual children with normal hearing and monolingual English-speaking children with cochlear implants. The study has two specific aims: (1) to investigate the effects of the diminished auditory signal by comparing the phonological skills of bilingual children with cochlear implants to those of their bilingual peers with normal hearing, and (2) to examine cross-language effects by comparing the phonological skills of bilingual children with cochlear implants to those of their monolingual English-speaking peers with cochlear implants. The aims will be addressed by conducting a comprehensive set of analyses to investigate speech acquisition in bilingual children who use cochlear implants and compare them to their bilingual peers with normal hearing and their monolingual peers with cochlear implants. General measures of phonology, specific analyses of speech, and measures of auditory comprehension and speech perception will be used to compare the performance of the groups of children. The analyses include measures that have been used with monolingual children with cochlear implants (such as segmental accuracy) as well as analyses that are novel for the target population of bilingual children with cochlear implants (e.g., phonological whole-word measures). Research on speech development in bilingual children with cochlear implants is limited, and comprehensive analyses of the phonological skills involving the same population are virtually non-existent. Moreover, research on bilingual language development in children with cochlear implants presents conflicting information regarding whether or not to recommend using both languages. The proposed study will address both of these issues, filling a critical gap in knowledge that currently acts as a barrier to progress in the field by laying the groundwork on speech development in bilingual children with cochlear implants. Furthermore, the results of the proposed research will also have an impact on clinical practice by providing information regarding the development of phonological systems in bilingual children who use cochlear implants.