Acoustics of long vowels in Arabic-speaking children with hearing impairments

Abstract The present study investigates formant frequencies and vowel space area in Jordanian hearing-impaired individuals who received cochlear implants. To achieve this task, they were compared with their hearing aids normal-hearing peers. involved 60 participants aged between 7 11 years, consisting of 20 implant (CI) users, aid (HA) (NH) children. All native speakers Arabic. measured the fundamental frequency ( F 0), first, second, third 1– 3) five long vowels: /i:/, /e:/, /a:/, /o:/, /u:/ using Praat software (version 6.1.05). One-way repeated measure (ANOVA) post hoc Tukey tests used to compare differences three groups. results revealed significant groups degree height backness for all vowels. HA users was found be smaller than CI users. had difficulty varying tongue position both high–low front–back dimensions, while only dimension. also examined errors vowels diphthongs. findings indicated that after implantation, formants produced by shifted closer those NH peers, a greater This research could potentially contribute development effective interventions provide insights design speech therapy programs aim improve production abilities.