ABSTRACT
Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD) is characterized by a difficulty in establishing verbal behavior in the speaker and listener modalities due to an asynchrony in the nervous conduction of sound stimuli, leading to hearing loss. Cochlear implants are an alternative that stabilizes sound detection; however, discriminating and recognizing what is heard and establishing relations to speech requires learning. A procedure with recognized efficacy in establishing verbal repertoires in children with little or no language is Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI). The objective of this study was to verify replicability of results obtained from MEI with other populations for teaching and integrating listener and speaker behaviors on a six year-old child with ANSD and bilateral cochlear implants. The study was conducted with three sets of stimuli and consisted in a rotated presentation of listener responses, based on figure selection from dictated words, and of speaker responses, after a dictated word (echoic) and figure naming (tact). Repeated probes evaluated performance on the set of stimuli. Even though there is some variability in responding, selection responses were established first and speaker responses occurred gradually throughout successive sessions. The conditions under which a speaker’s repertoire may be refined, and generalization of these results to other participants with ANSD should be further investigated.
Keywords:
Language; Hearing Impaired Persons; Cochlear Implant; Teaching