Simultaneous communication supports learning in noise by cochlear implant users

Abstract

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate the potential of using spoken language and signing together (simultaneous communication, SimCom, sign-supported speech) as a means of improving speech recognition, comprehension, and learning by cochlear implant (CI) users in noisy contexts.

Methods: Forty eight college students who were active CI users, watched videos of three short presentations, the text versions of which were standardized at the 8^th-grade reading level. One passage was presented in spoken language only, one was presented in spoken language with multi-talker babble background noise, and one was presented via simultaneous communication with the same background noise. Following each passage, participants responded to 10 (standardized) open-ended questions designed to assess comprehension. Indicators of participants’ spoken language and sign language skills were obtained via self-reports and objective assessments.

Results: When spoken materials were accompanied by signs, scores were significantly higher than when materials were spoken in noise without signs. Participants’ receptive spoken language skills significantly predicted scores in all three conditions; neither their receptive sign skills nor age of implantation predicted performance.

Discussion: Students who are CI users typically rely solely on spoken language in the classroom. The present results, however, suggest that there are potential benefits of simultaneous communication for such learners in noisy settings. For those CI users who know sign language, the redundancy of speech and signs potentially can offset the reduced fidelity of spoken language in noise.

Conclusion: Accompanying spoken language with signs can benefit learners who are CI users in noisy situations such as classroom settings. Factors associated with such benefits, such as receptive skills in signed and spoken modalities, classroom acoustics, and material difficulty need to be empirically examined.

Keywords:

• Cochlear implant
• Simultaneous communication
• Classroom acoustics
• Deaf learners

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Georgianna Borgna, Carol Convertino, and Linda Siple for their assistance in conducting the study, and Don Feigel for his video expertise. The contents of the research are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIDCD or NTID. The authors wish to thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting this analysis.

Notes

1. In the studies cited here showing SimCom to be effective in the classroom, the materials were produced by highly skilled SimCom users, all of whom also were skilled users of ASL. The presenter in this study also was highly skilled in both modes of communication. The level of SimCom skill needed to effect such results in the classroom, undoubtedly related to the receptive skills of the learners, remains to be empirically determined (see Coryell & Holcomb, 1997).