Eliciting Prespeech Vocalizations in a Young Child With Profound Hearing Loss

Abstract

The usefulness of a real-time spectrographic speech display (SSD) in eliciting imitative and spontaneous prespeech vocalizations was explored through a case study. A 3-year, 10-month-old boy who exhibited a profound bilateral hearing loss participated in six speech training sessions. The subject received instruction that used SSD feedback to stimulate imitative production of disyllables. In addition, spontaneous vocalizations with and without SSD feedback were classified according to the developmental levels observed in infants with normal hearing (Stark, 1989). Improvement in the ability to imitate disyllables was observed. The subject also produced a higher proportion of later-developing vocalizations when using SSD feedback than when vocalizing without SSD feedback. Implications for assessment of speech development and for speech training are discussed.