A critical level of hearing for speech perception in children

Abstract

Cochlear implants have raised questions about how children with profoundly impaired hearing can learn spoken language. This study addresses the question of whether there is a critical level of hearing for the development of adequate speech perception abilities. A comparison of the relationships between speech perception scores and spoken language scores shows that a group of profoundly deaf children using hearing aids process spoken language in a way that is fundamentally different from two groups of children with severe and moderate hearing losses. We infer that there is a critical level of hearing below which speech perception relies very heavily on linguistic processing to compensate for limited auditory, information. We also show that a cochlear implant can promote profoundly deaf children from below to above the critical level of hearing. ©2001 Acoustical Society of America.