TEACHING INTEGRATION OF SPEAKER-LISTENER REPERTOIRES VIA MULTIPLE-EXEMPLAR INSTRUCTION IN COCHLEAR IMPLANTED CHILDREN

Abstract

This study aimed at verifying the effects of the Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI) procedures on verbal skills of speakers and listeners in three children from 8 to 12 years old with pre-lingual hearing impairment and cochlear implant by using three sets of non-conventional stimuli. The target-repertoires of the study were: echoic, auditory-visual discrimination, and tact. Phase 1 was the initial repertoire assessment of the speakers (tact and textual) and listeners (auditory-visual conditional discrimination). Phase 2 established the listener training chained by the experimenter's dictated word to the visual stimulus used as sample and the demand of echoic response from the participants, in addition to the speaker training (tact) with the Stimuli Set 1. In Phase 3 were performed the training of the listener and the speaker using the MEI procedure with the Stimulus Set 1. Phase 4 consisted in the assessment of repertoire’s integration after the MEI. Phase 5 consisted in reapplying Phase 3 with the Stimulus Set 3. Afterwards, Phase 1 tests were reapplied. The performance of the participants varied from 16% to 100%of accurate responses t in the target-repertoire. The participants showed the acquisition of auditory-visual discrimination (listener) and systematic increase in the echoic and tact repertoires (speaker) with specific stimuli in the teaching phases. In the post-test 100% of correct echoic was maintained and the percentage of tacts increased in comparison to the post- test, however some individual variations occurred (44,4; 55,5; 77,7% respectively for each of the three participants). The efficiency of multiple exemplar procedures in promoting the interdependency between verbal repertoires for the population of people with cochlear implants is debated. Key words: Multiple exemplar instruction, listener behavior, speaker behavior, pre-lingual hearing impairment, cochlear implant.