Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the time course of vocal development in infants and toddlers with bilateral cochlear implants (CIs; bilateral CI group) who are acquiring Finnish and to compare their progress to that of infants with normal hearing and typical development (TD group). Method: Five thousand nine hundred…

This investigation examined the time course and sequence of prelinguistic vocal development during the first year of cochlear implant (CI) experience. Thirteen children who were implanted between 8 and 35 months and 11 typically developing (TD) infants participated in this longitudinal study. Adult-child play interactions were video- and…

This article describes the development of intonation in 12 cochlear implant (CI) recipients. In a previously reported study of the first year of CI use, children who were implanted late (after 24 months) acquired intonation more rapidly than the younger participants. The older children's advantage is plausibly owing to their greater maturity.…

This article describes the longitudinal development of intonation in 18 deaf children who received cochlear implants (CIs) before the age of 3 years and 12 infants with typical development (TD) who served as controls. At the time their implants were activated, the children with CIs ranged in age from 9 to 36 months. Cross-group comparisons were…

Purpose: The speech production accuracy and variability scores of 6 young cochlear implant (CI) recipients with 2 years of device experience were compared with those of typically developing (TD) age-peers. Method: Words from the First Words Speech Test (FWST; Ertmer, 1999) were imitated 3 times to assess the accuracy and variability of initial…

Purpose: To determine the concurrent validity of the Conditioned Assessment of Speech Production (CASP; Ertmer & Stoel-Gammon, 2008) and data obtained from speech samples recorded at the same intervals. Method: Nineteen children who are deaf who received cochlear implants before their 3rd birthdays participated in the study. Speech samples and…

Purpose: To compare young cochlear implant (CI) recipients' consonant production accuracy with that of age- and gender-matched peers who were typically developing (TD). In addition to examining initial consonants, the authors compiled new data regarding the accuracy of final consonants and the order of consonant acquisition. Methods: Eleven young…

Purpose: This investigation addressed two main questions: (a) How do toddlers' spoken utterances change during the first year of cochlear implant (CI) use? and (b) How do the time-courses for reaching spoken word milestones after implant activation compare with those reported for typically developing children? These questions were explored to…

Purpose: The main purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of cochlear implant experience on prelinguistic vocal development in young deaf children. Procedure: A prospective longitudinal research design was used to document the sequence and time course of vocal development in 7 children who were implanted between 10 and 36 months…

This investigation sought to answer two questions: (1) Do children who receive cochlear implants (CIs) by 3;0 (years; months) improve speech intelligibility significantly during their third year of cochlear implant use? (2) How do the intelligibility scores of young CI recipients compare to those reported in the literature for children who receive…