Comparing Phonological Processes of 4 to 6-year-old Monolingual Bangla-speaking Typically Developing Children and Children with Cochlear Implants

Children often simplify adult speech when they start talking by using some sound error patterns known as Phonological Processes (PPs) and those are considered typical until the age of six. However, for some children, these processes do not follow the typical pattern. For example, children with Cochlear implants (CI) start to hear and develop an understanding of speech sounds after their hearing devices are switched on. CI is known as the most effective sensory prosthesis in the world for Profound Sensory Neural Hearing Loss (SNHL). However, research on the phonological development or phonological processes used by children with CI in Bangladesh is limited. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to compare the PPs of 4- to 6-year-old Bengali children with CI and TD children; and to find out the unique PPs pattern in children with CI. This study recruited 30 participants aged 4 to 6 years, including 15 children in both TD and CI groups. Data were collected in a twenty-minute recording session using a picture naming task. Then analyzed using Narrow Phonetic Transcription by undertaking the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The results suggested that fewer PPs were found in the TD group than in the CI group, and the early-implanted children with CI used fewer PPs than the later-implanted peers. Also, three unique processes were found in the CI group-initial consonant deletion, medial consonant deletion, and weak syllable deletion, which were absent in their TD peer. Social Science Review, Vol. 41(2), December 2024, pp. 265-286