PURPOSE: to conduct a comparative study of the vocal parameters in the fundamental frequency, first formant and second formant of the voice of children with cochlear implants, the voice of children using personal sound amplification device and normal hearing children. METHOD: the sample of 18 children (12 girls and 6 boys) aged from 5 to 7 years old (average age 6,3 years).The recording of the samples was performed in the voice laboratory at the speech pathology clinic of the University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, using the PRAAT software. The analyzed parameters were fundamental frequency and second formant frequency of sustained vowel [a] emission and of first formant and second formant frequencies of vowel [a], for syllables [ka] and [pa]. RESULTS: except for the first formant of the vowel [a] of the syllable [pa] that showed a statistically significant difference among cochlear implant users and normal hearing groups, the other parameters showed statistically significant difference among the three groups. CONCLUSION: children users of cochlear implants present acoustic values close to those of normal hearing children, these values being more adequate than those presented by the children using individual sound amplification devices.
Voice; Cochlear Implantation; Speech; Child
