Emotional Speech Comprehension in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implant

• Main Authors: Le Maner-Idrissi Gaïd, Le Sourn Bissaoui Sandrine, Dardier Virginie, Codet Maxime, Botte-Bonneton Nathalie, Delahaye Fanny, Laval Virginie, Aguert Marc, Tan-Bescond Géraldine, Godey Benoit
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sciendo 2020-01-01
• Series: Psychology of Language and Communication
• Subjects: emotional speech; prosody; deaf children; implant cochlear; pragmatic abilities
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.2478/plc-2020-0003

We examined the understanding of emotional speech by deaf children with cochlear implant (CI). Thirty deaf children with CI and 60 typically developing controls (matched on chronological age or hearing age) performed a computerized task featuring emotional prosody, either embedded in a discrepant context or without any context at all. Across the task conditions, the deaf participants with CI scored lower on the prosody-bases responses than their peers matched on chronological age or hearing age. Additionally, we analyzed the effect of age on determining correct prosody-based responses and we found that hearing age was a predictor of the accuracy of prosody-based responses. We discuss these findings with respect to delay in prosody and intermodal processing. Future research should aim to specify the nature of the cognitive processes that would be required to process prosody.