국내에서 신생아청각선별검사(newborn hearing screening) 가 확대 실시되면서 청각장애의 조기 진단과 재활이 가능하게 되었다. 청각장애 아동의 청력손실 정도가 고도(severe) 이상인 경우에는 보청기 착용만으로 구어 의사소통 발달에 필요한 말 지각(speech perception)발달이 어려우므로, 인공와우이식(cochlear implantation)의 대상이 된다. Kim(2007)은 인공와우에 대해서 “내이의 손상으로 인해 고도의 감각신경성 난청 혹은 농이 된 환자에게 청력을 제공해 주기 위하여, 외부의 음원으로 부터 전달되어 온 소리 에너지를 내이를 대신하여 전기적 에너 지로 변환시켜 와우관 내에 삽입한 전극을 통하여 청신경을 직 접 자극하는 장치이다.”라고 언급하였다. 즉, 인공와우와 와우 관 내에 삽입된 전극이 손상된 내이를 대신해서 청신경을 직접 자극함으로써, 청각장애 아동에게 유용한 청력을 제공하는 것 이다.
Purpose: The current study investigated the effects of the listener’s experience of disordered speech and articulation severity of speakers on single-word intelligibility in children with cochlear implants (CIs). Methods: Two speakers (mild/moderate-to-severe) and 36 listeners (experienced/inexperienced listeners) participated in this study. Speech samples were collected from two children with CIs who was diagnosed with speech sound disorders (SSDs). Single-word intelligibility was judged by 18 mothers of children with SSDs as experienced listeners and 18 adults as inexperienced listeners using an orthographic transcription task. Results: Results of the two-way mixed ANOVA revealed that two main effects were statistically significant. Experienced listeners showed significantly better scores of the intelligibility task than inexperienced listeners. Listeners were better in understanding the words of a speaker that was mild than moderate-to-severe. Two-way interactions were statistically significant, indicating that the articulation severity of speakers differentiated experienced listeners from inexperienced listeners. Conclusion: These results suggest that listening experience of disordered speech was critical to evaluate speech intelligibility of children with CIs, especially in moderate-to-severe speakers.
INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSIONS REFERENCES
