Relationship between voice and speech perception in children with cochlear implant.

BACKGROUND The use of cochlear implant results in the optimization of speech perception, and, as a consequence in the development of oral language, speech and voice of its users, demonstrating to be one of the most effective and promising technologies to remedy hearing loss. However, little has been studied about the relationship between auditory skills and the voice of children using cochlear implants. AIM To relate the speech perception abilities to the vocal characteristics of cochlear implant users. METHOD Perceptive and acoustic analysis of the long vowel /a/ and counting of numbers were carried out. This analysis was compared to a standardized speech perception protocol, that evaluates the recognition of words, its phonemes and consonants. RESULTS It was observed that the higher the recognition of consonants, the higher the maximum frequency, standard deviation of the fundamental frequency and average of intensity during the sequential speech, as well as fundamental frequency average during the emission of the vowel /a/. Also, the higher the recognition of consonants, the lower the standard deviation of the quality of voice and resonance in the perceptive-auditory analysis. CONCLUSION Among the children with cochlear implants, the ones with better speech perception abilities present lower perceptive-auditory deviations of the quality of voice.