Ask a question! How Italian children with cochlear implants produce subject and object wh- questions

Syntax is impaired in individuals with cochlear implants (CIs). Several studies have shown that Italian speaking children fitted with CIs have troubles with relative clauses (Volpato & Adani 2009; Volpato 2010; Volpato 2012; Volpato & Vernice 2014), sentences containing clitic pronouns (Guasti et al. 2014), and wh-questions (Volpato & D’Ortenzio 2017). The aim of this study is to provide a detailed analysis of the production of wh-questions by a group of 13 Italian-speaking children fitted with CIs, and to compare their performance with a group of 13 typically developing children matched on comparable chronological age. Accuracy is lower in the group of children with CIs than in controls, but no significant difference was found between the two groups. However, much individual variability was observed. Some children with CIs showed good competence of Italian. Other children produce ungrammatical sentences, which is evidence of the linguistic delay associated to hearing impairment, even when they are fitted with CI