CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Laryngorhinootologie 2022; 101(S 02): S243-S244
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1746824
Poster
Otology / Neurootology / Audiology: Cochlear implant

Phoneme identification by adult cochlear implant users

Lorena Weber
1   Klinik für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie der Uniklinik RWTH Aachen Aachen
,
Gerda van den Hurk
1   Klinik für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie der Uniklinik RWTH Aachen Aachen
,
Stephan Hackenberg
1   Klinik für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie der Uniklinik RWTH Aachen Aachen
,
Miguel Goncalves
1   Klinik für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie der Uniklinik RWTH Aachen Aachen
,
Heike Kühn
2   Klinik und Poliklinik für Hals-Nasen und Ohrenkrankheiten, plastische und ästhetische Operationen am Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Comprehensive Hearing Center (CHC) Würzburg Würzburg
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Objective

The identification of certain phonems is often difficult for cochlear implant (CI) users. The aim of this study was to determine common mistakes in phoneme identification of consonants and vowels.

Material and Method

20 adult CI users with postlingual deafness took part in this study. 22 different consonant neologisms of the form aKa and 18 different vowel neologisms of the form bVt were presented to them via the T-coil function of the CI. The subjects were asked to repeat what they heard. The amount of errors of the various phonems were analysed.

Results

The answers of the subjects were arranged separately for consonants and vowels in phoneme discrimination matrices. Consonants are more often understood more correctly than vowels (44.6% vs. 28.8%, p<.001). Consonants of certain manner of articulation are more often misunderstood than other consonants of the same manner of articulation compared to other manners of articulation. This effect was highly significant with plosives, fricatives and nasals (p<.001), with the other sounds (/l/, /r/, /j/) and the affricats also showing a significant effect (p<.025)

Conclusion

In this study, typical errors in sound identification by CI users were recorded with the German phoneme inventory for the first time. On this basis, the errors in postoperative speech therapy can be compared and appropriate therapy options can be considered. In addition, with the help of the results, it is possible to create material for therapy and diagnostic, hierarchically structured according to difficulty.



Publication History

Article published online:
24 May 2022

© 2022. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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