Effects of a Reading Teaching Program on the Speech Intelligibility of Children Using Cochlear Implant

Abstract

Considering the speech rehabilitation in children with hearing impairment and cochlear implant and the evidence of possible stimuli control transference of reading to naming, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a teaching program for reading simple words on the speech intelligibility of two children in tests of reading words and naming pictures. The procedure consisted of teaching conditional relations based on a selection of printed words and word composition after word dictation. Picture naming was assessed in a multibaseline design. Data showed improvement in the quality of responses when compared to baseline, both in front of words and pictures. Future studies with higher number of participants and other experimental designs may verify the benefits of teaching programs to the rehabilitation process of this population.