Hui Mei Yang

Speech perception of Mandarin Chinese speaking young children after cochlear implant use: effect of age at implantation

OBJECTIVE The purposes of this study were to examine (1). whether the benefit of cochlear implants in Mandarin-speaking congenitally deaf children persists over a 2-year follow-up period, and (2). whether the age of the child at implantation affects the acquisition of speech perception by young deafened children. METHOD Sixteen congenitally deaf children received implants of Nucleus CI24M devices. Speech perception tests were conducted using the Mandarin Auditory Perception Test Battery at 6-month intervals after connection of the device. We determined the benefit of cochlear implants by monitoring percent correct scores between 12 and 24 months after implantation. Regression analysis was used to correlate the measures of progress and the age at implantation. RESULTS In the comparison of performance at 12 and 24 months post-connection, subjects performed significantly better at 24 than at 12 months in spondee, vowel, and consonant tests (P<0.05). In phrase and sentence tests, the mean score improved over time with device use, but the difference was not significant (P=0.066 and 0.067, respectively). However, no obvious improvement in average score was found in tone tests (P=0.386). Progress (improvement in speech perception) at 12 and 24 months had moderate negative correlations with age at implantation in spondee, vowel, phrase and sentence tests (P<0.05), but no correlation with age in consonant (P=0.20) and tone tests (P=0.26). CONCLUSION The result, in accordance with the reports on Western language-speaking children, showed cochlear implants increasingly benefit Mandarin-speaking congenitally deaf children over a 2-year post-implantation period. Because age at implantation negatively correlates with improved speech perception after implantation, congenitally affected children with profound deafness (if they cannot obtain enough benefit from hearing aids) should receive implants as early as possible.

Effects of Computer-Assisted Speech Training on Mandarin-Speaking Hearing-Impaired Children

The present study investigated whether moderate amounts of computer-assisted speech training can improve the speech recognition performance of hearing-impaired children. Ten Mandarin-speaking children (3 hearing aid users and 7 cochlear implant users) participated in the study. Training was conducted at home using a personal computer for half an hour per day, 5 days per week, for a period of 10 weeks. Results showed significant improvements in subjects’ vowel, consonant, and tone recognition performance after training. The improved performance was largely retained for 2 months after training was completed. These results suggest that moderate amounts of auditory training, using a computer-based auditory rehabilitation tool with minimal supervision, can be effective in improving the speech performance of hearing-impaired children.

Tone discrimination and speech perception benefit in Mandarin-speaking children fit with HiRes fidelity 120 sound processing

Objective: To compare tone discrimination, speech perception, and general listening benefit in Mandarin-speaking children using standard HiRes and after 1, 3, and 6 months of HiRes 120 use. The HiResolution Bionic Ear is an implantable prosthesis designed to provide access to sound and to improve perception of speech via electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. The newest sound-processing strategy is HiRes with Fidelity 120 (HiRes 120). In HiRes 120, the input signal is analyzed in greater spectral detail than with original HiRes to achieve a maximum of 120 spectral bands. HiRes 120 is expected to provide more benefit than the original HiRes because of the increased spectral resolution. Setting: Cochlear implant/tertiary referral center. Subjects: Seven children, aged 5 to 12 years, who had been implanted with a CII or 90K implant with a fully inserted electrode array and at least 10 contiguous programmable electrodes. Design: Tone discrimination, consonant identification, the Mandarin lexical neighborhood test (M-LNT), and the speech perception in noise (SPIN) tests were administered in 4 sessions: at a baseline visit with standard HiRes before being fit with HiRes 120 and at 1, 3, and 6 months after using HiRes 120. Each subject and his or her parents also completed a strategy preference questionnaire after using HiRes 120 for 6 months. Results: Statistically significant improvements from baseline with HiRes to 6 months with HiRes 120 were found for tone discrimination (61.4 to 73.2%, p = 0.006) and for SPIN low predictability (65.7 to 74.7%, p = 0.039). Mean score changes of 47.4 to 50.4% (p = 0.499) for consonant perception, 82.9 to 86.4% for M-LNT (easy words; p = 0.322), 77.1 to 81.0% for M-LNT (hard words; p = 0.423), and 72.3 to 78.5% for SPIN high predictability (p = 0.427) showed trends for improvement but were not statistically significant. Questionnaire results indicated that all children and parents preferred HiRes 120 to HiRes. Strength of preference was 8.9 for children and 8.1 for parents on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = weak preference, 10 = strong preference). Conclusion: Taken together, the improved tone discrimination and speech perception results, along with subjective improvements in speech fluency, discrimination, and music appreciation, indicate a trend toward superior listening benefit with HiRes 120 compared with standard HiRes in Mandarin-speaking children.

Development of Mandarin monosyllabic lexical neighbourhood test (LNT)

The performance of cochlear implanted children in Mandarin LNT was the same as the results of Kirk et al. (1995, 1999). Their performances of spoken word recognition were influenced by lexical difficulty. They were sensitive to the acoustic-phonetic similarities among words. Thus, they organized words into similarity neighbourhoods in long-term memory. The scores of cochlear-implanted children among different versions of easy and hard lists of Mandarin LNT should be approximately equal, and their performance was of high correlation among lists. The results demonstrate that different versions of Mandarin LNT could provide reliable information, and we could use them as equivalent list to avoid practice effects when repeating measurements.

Speech Recognition Performance under Noisy Conditions of Children with Hearing Loss.

Objectives In order to understand the communicative abilities of hearing impaired children in noisy situations and their communication problems, this study was undertaken to examine speech recognition at different background noise levels, and to compare how context cues in noisy situations affect speech recognition. Methods Thirty-four children with severe/profound hearing impairment were enrolled. Fifteen children had cochlear implants (CIs) and 19 used hearing aids (HAs). The Mandarin Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) test was performed under two levels of background noise, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) 10 dB and SNR 0 dB (high and low levels, respectively). High predictive (HP) and low predictive (LP) sentences SPIN test scores were recorded to test the effect of context cues on speech recognition. Results Performance was significantly better in children with CIs (SNR 10: mean, 49.44, standard deviation [SD], 13.90; SNR 0: mean, 31.95, SD, 15.72) than in children with HAs (SNR 10: mean, 33.33, SD, 9.72; SNR 0: mean, 19.52, SD, 6.67; P<0.05) in both noise backgrounds, but no significant interaction was found between devices and background noise level. Hearing-impaired children performed better at SNR 10 dB (mean, 40.44; SD, 14.12) than at SNR 0 dB (mean, 25.0; SD, 12.98), significantly (P<0.001). Performance for HP sentences (mean, 38.6; SD, 12.66) was significantly (P<0.001) better than that for LP sentences (mean, 25.25; SD, 12.93). An interaction was found to between background noise level and contextual cues in sentences (F=8.47, P<0.01). Conclusion The study shows that SNR conditions significantly influence speech recognition performance in children with severe/profound hearing impairment. Under better SNR listening situations, children have better speech recognition when listening to sentences with contextual cues. Children with CIs perform better than children with HAs at both noise levels.

An Articulation Training System with Intelligent Interface and Multimode Feedbacks to Articulation Disorders

Articulation training with many kinds of stimulus and messages such as visual, voice, and articulatory information can teach user to pronounce correctly and improve user’s articulatory ability. In this paper, an articulation training system with intelligent interface and multimode feedbacks is proposed to improve the performance of articulation training. Clinical knowledge of speech evaluation is used to design the dependent network. Then, automatic speech recognition with dependent network is applied to identify the pronunciation errors. Besides, hierarchical Bayesian network is proposed to recognize user’s emotion from speeches. With the information of pronunciation errors and user’s emotional state, the articulation training sentences can be dynamically selected. Finally, a 3D facial animation is provided to teach users to pronounce a sentence by using speech, lip motion, and tongue motion. Experimental results reveal the usefulness of proposed method and system.

The effect of mental function on speech-perception performance in children with cochlear implants†

The results of the study suggest that the age of implantation was an important predicting factor of speech intelligibility, articulation ability and voice in prelingually deafened children with cochlear implantation. The receptive language level of preimplantation was also a predicting factor of speech intelligibility and articulation ability except voice measurement. Therefore, the current study suggested that the cochlear implantation surgery at an early age could enhance the level of overall speech-production abilities.

Tone production and perception and intelligibility of produced speech in Mandarin-speaking cochlear implanted children

Abstract Objective: This study explored tone production, tone perception and intelligibility of produced speech in Mandarin-speaking prelingually deaf children with at least 5 years of cochlear implant (CI) experience. Another focus was on the predictive value of tone perception and tone production as they relate to speech intelligibility. Design: Cross-sectional research. Study sample: Thirty-three prelingually deafened children aged over eight years with over five years of experience with CI underwent tests for tone perception, tone production, and the Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR). A Pearson correlation and a stepwise regression analysis were used to estimate the correlations among tone perception, tone production, and SIR scores. Results: The mean scores for tone perception, tone production, and SIR were 76.88%, 90.08%, and 4.08, respectively. Moderately positive Pearson correlations were found between tone perception and production, tone production and SIR, and tone perception and SIR (p < 0.01, p < 0.01 and p < 0.01, respectively). In the stepwise regression analysis, tone production, as the major predictor, accounted for 29% of the variations in the SIR (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Mandarin-speaking cochlear-implanted children with sufficient duration of CI use produce intelligent speech. Speech intelligibility can be predicted by tone production performance.

Development of Articulation Assessment and Training System with Speech Recognition and Articulation Training Strategies Selection

Articulation problems seriously reduce speech intelligent and speech communication and affect persons interpersonal communication, personality, social adaptive capacity, and learning ability. In the clinical protocol, language therapist utilizes clinical experience to individualized assessment, treatment, and training. However, the manpower of language therapists and the assistant instruments are insufficient. In this paper, an articulation assessment and training system is proposed to assist language therapists and articulation disorders. The articulation errors in phonetic are analyzed and modeled by clinical linguist. Using clinical experience of language therapists, articulation training strategies for each type of articulation errors are designed. The articulation characteristics of user can be effectively detected. Speechreading information is responded to improve the performance of training program. The articulation training strategy is automatically selected to suggest articulation disorder in language training activities. Experimental results reveal the practicability of proposed method and system.

Handheld device based personal auditory training system to hearing loss

The assistive hearing devices are the only aids to help subjects with hearing loss to use their residual hearing. However, the performance of those devices is closely dependent on auditory training. To develop handheld devices based personal auditory training system with perceptional discrimination analysis and automatic test item generation is very helpful for subjects with hearing loss. Besides, it would ease the burden of speech-language pathologists in developing a personal auditory training. In this study, the mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients and automatic speech recognition are applied to objectively estimate the phonemic confusions. For reducing computational complex, multidimensional scaling is then used to transfer the phonemic confusions into a Euclidean space. Thus, a suitable training material could be automatically generated by simple random process. Finally, the Android based mobile phones are selected as a platform for auditory training. It is convenient for subjects to use the auditory training system. The experimental results show that the average score of mean opinion score is 3.73, which means that the system is very useful.