Browsing by Author "Molander, Mikaela"

Faculty Faculty of Medicine Department Department of Psychology and Logopedics Author Mikaela Molander Title Development of syllable stress perception and word finding in children with cochlear implant during speech-music -intervention Subject Logopedics Level/Instruct Master’s Thesis / Ritva Torppa, Eila Lonka Month and year April 2020 Number of pages 59 pages + 9 appendices Abstract Aims. Phonological and lexical development of children with a cochlear implant (CI-children) is often poorer compared to children with normal hearing. There have been only a few studies on word finding (WF) skills of CI-children. As the time frame of childhood language development is narrow and language development of prelingually deaf children is often delayed, it is important to study how to support early speech perception and production of these children. The aim of this study is to find out whether syllable stress perception and WF skills of CI-children develop during a speech-music -intervention. Methods. In this multicase study, four CI-children, aged 5–7 years, were followed through a group intervention with methods and procedures from music and speech therapy. The group was chosen by a public hospital hearing center. Children performed tasks on discrimination of fundamental frequency (F0) and duration four times (at 0, 3, 7 and 12 months) and a test of word finding (accuracy and speed) two times (at 3 and 12 months) during the 12 months follow-up. Quantitative results were compared with previous research data on syllable stress perception of Finnish CI-children and with Finnish background data on the normative WF test used in the follow-up. Results and conclusions. Perception of fundamental frequency (F0) and duration of CI-children improved in almost every task and comparison during the follow-up period. WF skills improved at least in one part-task per child, however individual variation was evident. Only one child showed (both positive and negative) changes quicker than expected according to WF normative data. Changes in WF performance of other children fell within normal variation. There was more positive development in WF accuracy than in WF speed. The reported changes, coincided with the speech-music -intervention, support the assumption that music may have positive effects on syllable stress perception and further on language development of CI-children. Music in family rehabilitation coaching and as part of speech therapy of young CI-children should be encouraged. Keywords cochlear implant, music, prosody, word stress/syllable stress, word finding, children Where deposited Helsingin yliopiston kirjasto – Helda / E-thesis (opinnäytteet) ethesis.helsinki.fi