The aim the present collective case-study was to analyze the orthographic errors of elementary school children with cochlear implants. Four children who became deaf in the pre-lingual period were selected. All subjects started using hearing aids and began speech therapy before 18 months of age and had their cochlear implant surgery between 42 and 54 months. Using an orthographic observation script for dictations and compositions, the errors were classified, quantified, registered and then analyzed. The four categories with the highest incidence of orthographic errors were: voiced x unvoiced phonemes, multiple representations, omission of letters, and "others". All subjects had a much higher incidence of errors in activities involving dictation, in comparison to composition activities, suggesting that, in orthographic terms, dictation was more difficult than composition. The highest incidence of errors was related to acoustic and articulatory patterns, metalinguistic skills of phonological, lexical and morphosyntactic awareness, and other aspects linked to language and pronunciation. Among the reasons why the errors in dictation activities were higher is the fact that, during these activities, children tend to show lower ability of self-correction. Another important reason is related to the frequency effect and the restrict words repertoire due to the language delay. In general, this study identified approaches to help the speech-language therapist to better understand the written production of students with cochlear implants.
Cochlear implantation; Language; Handwriting; Hearing loss
