Study of Phonological Awareness of Preschool and School Aged Children with Cochlear Implant and Normal Hearing

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The primary purpose of this study was to assess whether very early access to speech sounds provided by the cochlear implant enables children to develop age-appropriate phonological awareness abilities in their preschool and school years. A secondary purpose of this study was to examine whether children who had cochlear implantation before 18 months of age will develop better skills in phonological awareness than children who had cochlear implants in 18-36 months of age. A third purpose of this study was to examine whether some factors like the child's age or sex would have any effects on developing of age-appropriate phonological awareness abilities. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: 48 children with 70 to 95 months of age who had been utilizing their cochlear implant(s) before 36 months of age (CI group) and 30 normal hearing peers (NH group) were enrolled in this study. RESULTS: Child's age had a significant effect on phonological awareness, but sex had absolutely no effect in each group. Children in the cochlear implanted group were outperformed by their normal hearing peers in the area of phonological awareness, especially in phonemic awareness. The age of implantation was another significant variable. CONCLUSIONS: Although children with a younger age at implantation got better scores in phonological awareness test, they were outperformed by their normal hearing peers in this area.