PurposePhonological awareness (PA) skills are critical for spoken language acquisition and literacy. PA manifests in various skills that can be identified based on task performance and speech sound unit size. This study compared the PA skills of children with early cochlear implantation (E-CI), children with late cochlear implantation (L-CI), and children with typical hearing (TH) in relation to task and phonological unit. It also attempted to identify the significant predictors of PA skills in each CI and TH group.MethodTwenty children with E-CI, 20 children with L-CI, and 20 children with TH participated in this study. PA skills were assessed using elision, blending, and segmenting tasks at both the syllabic and phonemic levels.ResultsThe E-CI and L-CI groups performed significantly less well than the TH group on the elision and blending tasks at the syllabic level. However, the E-CI group performed at a similar level as the TH group in the segmenting tasks at both the syllabic and phonemic levels. The regression analysis identified age at implantation and receptive vocabulary scores as significant predictors of PA skills in children with CIs.ConclusionsAlthough all the children with CIs had age-appropriate receptive vocabulary skills, the PA skills of both the E-CI and L-CI groups tended to lag behind those of the TH group in the elision and blending tasks at the syllabic level. Age at implantation and receptive vocabulary skills affected the development of PA skills in children with CIs.

中文翻译：

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早期和晚期人工耳蜗植入儿童的语音意识技能：任务和语音单元的影响

目的语音意识（PA）技能对于口语习得和读写能力至关重要。PA 表现为各种技能，可以根据任务表现和语音单元大小来识别。本研究比较了早期人工耳蜗植入儿童 (E-CI)、晚期人工耳蜗植入儿童 (L-CI) 和典型听力儿童 (TH) 与任务和语音单位相关的 PA 技能。它还试图确定每个 CI 和 TH 组中 PA 技能的重要预测因素。方法20 名 E-CI 儿童、20 名 L-CI 儿童和 20 名 TH 儿童参与了本研究。PA 技能通过音节和音素层面的省略、混合和分段任务进行评估。结果E-CI 和 L-CI 组在音节层面的省略和混合任务上的表现明显低于 TH 组。然而，E-CI 组在音节和音素层面的分段任务中表现与 TH 组相似。回归分析确定植入年龄和接受词汇得分是 CI 儿童 PA 技能的重要预测因素。结论尽管所有 CI 儿童都具有适合年龄的接受词汇技能，但在音节层面的省略和混合任务中，E-CI 和 L-CI 组的 PA 技能往往落后于 TH 组。着床年龄和接受性词汇技能影响 CI 儿童 PA 技能的发展。