Phonological processes after cochlear implantation: A Case ‎Study of Speech in Persian-speaking Students in Primary ‎Schools

Many researchers believe that children with cochlear implants have normal speech development like children with normal hearing. However, speech errors or phonological processes which in normal children usually disappear by the age of six, may, in children with severe/profound hearing impairment and cochlear implants, take longer to disappear, sometimes extending beyond age six. In order to help treatment, it is therefore necessary to examine the existence and type of speech errors among these children. The rationale behind the present study is that these processes which are known to be different in different languages and dialects, seem to be under-researched in Persian. To investigate and describe the normal and abnormal phonological processes in the continuous speech of four children of cochlear implantation from different grades in the elementary school for the deaf, the standard phonological test was used. Then their speech errors were analyzed. The results showed that normal phonological processes still exist in these children and that the elimination of the final consonant is the most frequent process (11/25), whereas the reduction of the cluster is the least frequent (0/75). The elimination of the final consonant, predilection, disengagement, and extension of the four phonological processes were found to be normal, having maximum values  in all the four cases. The most abnormal phonological processes concerned the number of laterals (3/75) that were found in all the four cases. Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that there are normal and abnormal processes in the speech of children with cochlear implantation but their number decreases as they grow older.