Speech perception by Arabic-speaking deaf and hard of hearing children

The study aims to assess perception of speech pattern contrasts, phonemes and words, by Arabic-speaking deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) children. For this purpose, two speech perception assessment tools, an "Arabic Picture Speech Pattern Contrast" (ArPiSPAC) test and an "Arabic AB", contrasts, phoneme and word perception test, were developed and administered to thirty-four Arabic-speaking children with moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss, hearing aids users, aged between 4;5 - 8;11. The ArPiSPaC was also administered to thirty-eight Arabic-speaking hearing children, aged between 2;6 - 5;5, in order to obtain a developmental hierarchy. An evaluation questionnaire was administered to fourteen speech and language pathologists (SLP) to estimate the use of the reported tests. For D/HH participants, vowel contrasts were better perceived than consonants, and articulation manner was better perceived than articulation place. Voicing contrasts were significantly correlated with both phoneme and word perception. A different phonological perception hierarchy was found for the hearing participants whose lowest scores were for vowel length and voicing contrasts. Finally, the evaluation questionnaire indicated that SLPs use both tests as assessment and training tools. The reported tests contribute to better understanding of speech perception abilities by D/HH and improve therapy and rehabilitation.