TACTILE VOCODERS AS AIDS TO SPEECH PRODUCTION IN YOUNG HEARING-IMPAIRED CHILDREN

Even though tactile devices have been used to supplement speech perception for hearing-impaired persons for many years, very little research has focused on the segmental speech production skills of individuals using these aids. The current report focuses on two groups of profoundly hearing-impaired children, one using tactile vocoders in addition to auditory amplification and the other using only amplification systems. The children were assessed at baseline and 3 years later using a speech token imitation task. Detailed transcriptions of the recorded speech samples show significant differences between the tactile group and the comparison group at year 3, especially in consonant production. Patterns of significant differences suggest potential contributions of the tactile aids to production gains.