Language Development in Children with a Cochlear Implant

Posted by Christopher Lee on April 14th, 2021

The expectations regarding the development of children with a cochlear implant - who from now on will be referred to as “IQ-children” - are very high. IQ-children are assumed to acquire spoken language. And not only that. Many hope - and even the expectation - that these children will become proficient in spoken language at the same level as children who hear normally. For this reason, very soon after the implant is performed, questions such as these often arise in parents:

• When will my child speak?
• How will my son speak?
• Will you speak normally, like hearing children?
• How fast will the language develop in it?
• How can I help you acquire the language?
• What is happening if the tongue is developing more slowly than expected?
• Are signs helpful or should they rather be avoided?
• Should the movement of the lips be hidden when speaking?

We are going to answer the way in which the development of spoken language occurs under normal conditions, and then, how it occurs in IQ-children.

In the end we will discuss what our research findings indicate appears to be able to be done to enhance speech development in IQ-children.

1. Natural language development in hearing children

People want to communicate. Children learn grammar effortlessly. Preventing a child from acquiring his mother tongue is hardly a futile effort. The eagerness to communicate with others is part of human nature. And the tongue serves that purpose. Children are born in a social environment, in which there is constant talk. They are surrounded by the sounds of speech. Children approach objects and events around them with curiosity and interest, and they have a desire to share their impressions with the people around them. They want to communicate. That is why it happens that they soon begin to use the language that is spoken around them. And once they have started, they become quick learners.

Language development in children with a cochlear implant

There are not many studies done on language development in children with IC. One of the most comprehensive studies carried out in the world was carried out, between 1996 and 2000, by our team at the University of Oldenburg in collaboration with the Hannover Cochlear Implant Center. It was a long-term study with 22 implanted children. The children had, when implanted, an average age of two years and five months. The youngest were barely over a year old, and the oldest were nearly four. Two-hour recordings of play situations were made for each child. Recordings were made at regular distances over a three-year period, beginning six months after the operation. As a comparison group, it was investigated, under identical conditions, language acquisition in 22 children with normal hearing. The children with normal hearing and the IQ-children had, at the time of the study, the same level of language: they dominated some isolated words, but still no grammar. From the recordings made, the development of language in children was analyzed.

How is language development different in IQ-children?

Children with normal hearing and children with a cochlear implant produce vocalizations. These are sound productions that we cannot recognize as words. In IC ‐ children, however, such vocalizations occur more frequently and are maintained for a longer period as well. They are also more varied than in children who hear normally.

The IQ-children deviate from the pronunciation model more markedly.

It is usual that the pronunciation of words in children who hear normally deviates from the adult model - as in the case of cat for cat, or prirate for pirate. In IC-children, however, these deviations are much more marked - as in the cases of mo, momo, mot or mojo as variants of the word motorcycle or cart per pallet. It is often the case that only the people who speak regularly with the child understand what he means.

Children ‐ IQ imitate more

At the beginning of the acquisition process, most children tend to repeat, imitating what they heard, words or complete sentences. This trend is, however, much more marked in IQ-children. While children with normal hearing repeat only occasionally, almost 30% of all productions recorded in IC-children are repetitions of what is said around them. This could be because IC-children are more frequently asked to repeat.

IQ-children differ more markedly from each other

The individual differences between IQ ‐ children are considerably greater than those observed among normal hearing children. There are three groups of children: those with rapid language development, those with slow development - though comparable to children who hear normally - and those who are evidently slow to develop.

Language development was as rapid in three IC-children in our study as in hearing children with very rapid development. These children could already construct two-word sentences about a year after the operation. Then their sentences quickly grew longer. You can reach out for speech therapy for kids in Dubai.