Correlation between perceptual speech intelligibility and word duration in 4-6 years old children with cochlear implant

The speech intelligibility is evaluated through the perceptual and acoustic methods. In the perceptual method, the speech intelligibility is investigated using the listener’s judgment. On the other hand, in the acoustic method, the acoustic parameters related to speech are studied. This study aimed to evaluate the association between the suprasegmental components and perceptual speech intelligibility through investigating the correlation between the mean duration of speech at the word level with the percentage of speech intelligibi­lity in children with cochlear implant.
This study was conducted on 18 children with cochlear implant within the age range of 4-6 years. The participants were asked to repeat 30 selected Persian words displayed in a video show while their voices were recorded by a microphone. The evaluation of perceptual speech intelligibility was performed using the judgment of three listeners who were unfamiliar with the speech of the hearing impaired children. The speech duration was calculated through the Praat software version 5.2.25.
According to the results, the mean of words duration was 0.5140±0.098 seconds and the mean percentage of the perceptual intelligibility of the selected words was 47.78%. Furthermore, the speech duration was significantly correlated with perceptual speech intelligibility (p The speech duration plays a pro­minent role in determining the speech intelligibility in the children with cochlear implant at the word level. Therefore, this method can be applied in the clinical rehabilitation programs implemented for these children to increase their speech intelligibility in an appropriate manner.