Babbling and consonant production in children with hearing impairment who use hearing aids or cochlear implants – a pilot study

Figures & data

Table 1. Subject characteristics and Medians (Md); children with HA (n = 5) and children with CI (n = 6).

Child	Test age (months)	Type of HI (S or C)	Type of HT (CI or HA)	Hearing age (months)	PTA (dB HL)	Littl EARS^®	Use of HT (hours/day)
1	9	C	No HT^1	9 (0)	30	18	0
2	9	S	BiHA^2	4	37.5	11	8
3	10	S	BiHA^3	3	50	15	8
4	19	C	BiHA^4	8	16.25	21	5
5	13	C	UniHA^5	13 (5)	45	33	4
Md	10	–	–	8	37.5	18	5
6	12	S	Bimodal	4	–	20	FTU
7	12	S	BiCI	7.5	35	21	FTU
8	18	S	Bimodal	9	45	31	FTU
9	21	S	BiCI	8	40	26	FTU
10	21	S	BiCI	11.5	36.25	34	FTU
11	21	S	Bimodal	13	38.25	22	FTU
Md	19.5	–	–	8.5	38.75	24	FTU

Note: Type of HI: Hearing Impairment (S: sensorineural; C: conductive); Type of HT: Hearing Technology; No HT¹: (No use of Hearing Technology); BiHA; Bilateral Hearing Aids (BiHA²: Widex 440; BiHA³: Oticon Safari SP 600 P; BiHA⁴: Widex Baby 400; UniHA⁵: Cochlear Baha BP100); Bimodal: use of a hearing aid and a cochlear implant; BiCI: bilateral cochlear implants; Hearing Age: time period in months with first HA or the 1st CI; PTA: Pure-Tone Average (dB HL: best ear); Use of HT: total use of the child’s hearing technology in hours per day; FTU: Full-time user of HT (12 h or more). Child 1 had zero (0) months of hearing experience on the left ear and Child 5 had five (5) months of hearing experience with a Baha on the left ear.

Table 2. Individual child characteristics and results in children with HA (n = 5) and children with CI (n = 6) including test age (months), hearing age (months with NH, HA or 1st CI), CB ratio (%), total number of utterances, occurrence of oral stops; anterior stops; dental-alveolar stops (yes = 1, no = 0) and number of different consonants and number of different oral stops.

Child	Test age	Hearing age	CB ratio	Number of utterances	Oral stops	Anterior stops	Dental-Alveolar stops	Number of different consonants	Number of different oral stops*
1	9	9 (0)	33	78	1	1	1	4	3
2	9	4	1	135	0	0	0	0	0
3	10	3	9	77	1	1	0	2	1
4	19	5	36	86	1	1	1	6	2
5	13	13 (5)	27	179	1	1	1	4	1
6	12	4	2	142	0	0	0	0	0
7	12	7.5	14	148	1	1	1	3	2
8	18	9	24	129	1	1	1	4	2
9	21	8	22	342	1	1	1	3	3
10	21	11.5	60	257	1	1	1	5	3
11	21	13	52	272	1	1	1	6	3

Note: Child 1 had zero (0) months of hearing experience on the left ear and Child 5 had five months of hearing experience with a Baha on the left ear.

*not counting voicing.

Figure 1. CB ratio (%) in children with normal hearing (NH) (n = 22) and children with HI divided by those with hearing aids (HA) (n = 5) and cochlear implants (CI) (n = 6).

Figure 2. Proportion of children using oral stops, anterior stops, and dental stops in the different groups, normal hearing (NH) (n = 22) and hearing impaired (HI) (n = 11) and divided by those with hearing aids (HA) (n = 5) and cochlear implants (CI) (n = 6).