<p>A cochlear implant (CI) is a hearing device that makes it possible for individuals who are deaf or has a severe hearing impairment to receive auditory information and develop spoken language. The pragmatic ability may be affected. In short, pragmatics may be described as the study of language use in social contexts. Pragmatic ability can be seen as the result of the individual‟s behavior as well as the underlying causes.</p><p>The aim of the present study was to describe the pragmatic ability in children with CI. An approach inspired by Conversation Analysis (CA) was used in order to highlight the various phenomena that occurred in the interaction.</p><p>Seven children with CI participated in the study, five girls and two boys. Each conversation consisted of either a child with CI interacting with a peer, or a child with CI interacting with a parent or a teacher. A total of 14 conversations were analyzed and phenomena relevant to the study were examined. To gather further information regarding the children‟s communicative behavior, Children’s Communication Checklist was filled in by parents and teachers.</p><p>The children who participated in the study constitute a heterogeneous group and there was no clear pattern when it comes to hearing-impairment and pragmatic ability. The result showed that children with CI used both specific and non-specific requests for clarification. It seems as if intelligibility on the sentence level may reflect how efficient the interaction turns out, as the children with high intelligibility were the ones who managed to solve misunderstandings the best in the conversations. Furthermore, the result demonstrated that the adult participants used a higher rate of specific requests for clarification in contrast to children with CI.</p> / <p>Ett cochleaimplantat (CI) är ett hjälpmedel som gör att personer med grav hörselnedsättning eller personer som är döva får möjlighet att höra och utveckla talat språk. Den pragmatiska förmågan kan vara påverkad. Pragmatik kan i stort betecknas som studiet av språkanvändning i interaktion och pragmatisk förmåga kan beskrivas som ett resultat av individens beteende samt bakomliggande orsaker.</p><p>Syftet med föreliggande studie var att beskriva pragmatisk förmåga hos barn med CI. Ett arbetssätt inspirerat av Conversation Analysis (CA) har använts för att belysa fenomen som förekom i interaktionen.</p><p>I studien deltog sju barn med CI, varav fem flickor och två pojkar. Deltagarna videofilmades när de interagerade med en jämnårig kamrat, respektive en person ur förskolepersonalen eller en förälder. Totalt 14 samtal analyserades och för studien relevanta fenomen belystes. För att inhämta kompletterande information kring barnens samspelsförmåga fylldes Children’s Communication Checklist i av föräldrar och personal.</p><p>Barnen som deltog i studien är en heterogen grupp. Vidare ses inga entydiga mönster vad gäller hörselnedsättning och pragmatiska förmågor. I studien visades att barn med CI använder sig av både generella och specifika begäran om förtydligande. Förståelighet på meningsnivå tycks avspegla hur effektivt samspelet fortskrider då de barn som har hög förståelighet är de som har färre begäranden om förtydligande i samtal. Vidare visar resultaten att de vuxna samtalsdeltagarna använder fler andel specifika begäran om förtydligande i jämförelse med barn med CI.</p>

A cochlear implant (CI) is a hearing device that makes it possible for individuals who are deaf or has a severe hearing impairment to receive auditory information and develop spoken language. The pragmatic ability may be affected. In short, pragmatics may be described as the study of language use in social contexts. Pragmatic ability can be seen as the result of the individual‟s behavior as well as the underlying causes. The aim of the present study was to describe the pragmatic ability in children with CI. An approach inspired by Conversation Analysis (CA) was used in order to highlight the various phenomena that occurred in the interaction. Seven children with CI participated in the study, five girls and two boys. Each conversation consisted of either a child with CI interacting with a peer, or a child with CI interacting with a parent or a teacher. A total of 14 conversations were analyzed and phenomena relevant to the study were examined. To gather further information regarding the children‟s communicative behavior, Children’s Communication Checklist was filled in by parents and teachers. The children who participated in the study constitute a heterogeneous group and there was no clear pattern when it comes to hearing-impairment and pragmatic ability. The result showed that children with CI used both specific and non-specific requests for clarification. It seems as if intelligibility on the sentence level may reflect how efficient the interaction turns out, as the children with high intelligibility were the ones who managed to solve misunderstandings the best in the conversations. Furthermore, the result demonstrated that the adult participants used a higher rate of specific requests for clarification in contrast to children with CI. / Ett cochleaimplantat (CI) är ett hjälpmedel som gör att personer med grav hörselnedsättning eller personer som är döva får möjlighet att höra och utveckla talat språk. Den pragmatiska förmågan kan vara påverkad. Pragmatik kan i stort betecknas som studiet av språkanvändning i interaktion och pragmatisk förmåga kan beskrivas som ett resultat av individens beteende samt bakomliggande orsaker. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att beskriva pragmatisk förmåga hos barn med CI. Ett arbetssätt inspirerat av Conversation Analysis (CA) har använts för att belysa fenomen som förekom i interaktionen. I studien deltog sju barn med CI, varav fem flickor och två pojkar. Deltagarna videofilmades när de interagerade med en jämnårig kamrat, respektive en person ur förskolepersonalen eller en förälder. Totalt 14 samtal analyserades och för studien relevanta fenomen belystes. För att inhämta kompletterande information kring barnens samspelsförmåga fylldes Children’s Communication Checklist i av föräldrar och personal. Barnen som deltog i studien är en heterogen grupp. Vidare ses inga entydiga mönster vad gäller hörselnedsättning och pragmatiska förmågor. I studien visades att barn med CI använder sig av både generella och specifika begäran om förtydligande. Förståelighet på meningsnivå tycks avspegla hur effektivt samspelet fortskrider då de barn som har hög förståelighet är de som har färre begäranden om förtydligande i samtal. Vidare visar resultaten att de vuxna samtalsdeltagarna använder fler andel specifika begäran om förtydligande i jämförelse med barn med CI.

Prosody can be characterized as the rhythm and the melody of speech. Prosodic features convey emotions, thoughts and geographic origins of each individual. Spoken language without prosody would be monotonous, without variations in loudness and rate. Children with cochlear implants perceive speech in a different way than children with normal hearing. Consequently the speech produced by a child with cochlear implants may sound different. The purpose of this study was to examine prosodic skills in Swedish children with cochlear implants and to compare them with the prosodic skills in Swedish children with normal hearing. The purpose of the study was also to examine differences between these two groups and to characterize those differences. Eight children with cochlear implants and eight controls matched to age, sex and regional accent were included in the study. The children’s production and perception of prosody was tested. The results show that there are differences in prosodic skills between the children with cochlear implants and their matched controls at word, phrase and discourse levels. The differences were significant in production but not in perception. Observed differences in the speech of the children with cochlear implants included omission of unstressed syllables and function words, difficulties producing contrast of tonal word accents and pro-longed maintenance of phonological processes. The study contributes to the knowledge about prosodic and linguistic skills in Swedish children with cochlear implants.

<p>Prosody can be characterized as the rhythm and the melody of speech. Prosodic features convey emotions, thoughts and geographic origins of each individual. Spoken language without prosody would be monotonous, without variations in loudness and rate. Children with cochlear implants perceive speech in a different way than children with normal hearing. Consequently the speech produced by a child with cochlear implants may sound different.</p><p>The purpose of this study was to examine prosodic skills in Swedish children with cochlear implants and to compare them with the prosodic skills in Swedish children with normal hearing. The purpose of the study was also to examine differences between these two groups and to characterize those differences.</p><p>Eight children with cochlear implants and eight controls matched to age, sex and regional accent were included in the study. The children’s production and perception of prosody was tested.</p><p>The results show that there are differences in prosodic skills between the children with cochlear implants and their matched controls at word, phrase and discourse levels. The differences were significant in production but not in perception. Observed differences in the speech of the children with cochlear implants included omission of unstressed syllables and function words, difficulties producing contrast of tonal word accents and pro-longed maintenance of phonological processes.</p><p>The study contributes to the knowledge about prosodic and linguistic skills in Swedish children with cochlear implants.</p>