Phonemic hearing in preschool-age

The diploma thesis deals with the problem of phonemic differentiation in preschool children. The introductory part is focused on the specifics of preschool age, ontogenesis of speech and characterization of phonemic hearing. The aim of this thesis is to determine the level of phonemic differentiation in children with cochlear implant and children without hearing impairment. The results were obtained using a standardized test battery Evaluation of Phonemic Hearing in Preschool Children by authors Škodová, Mischek and Moravcová from 1995, which is created for this issue. Subsequently, the results of both groups were compared and individual differences in performance between children with cochlear implant and children without hearing impairment were examined. Research has shown that better results in phonemic distinction amounted children without hearing impairment, although the difference in success rate between the two groups was not significant. The main benefit of this work is the fact that the ability of phonemic differentiation is important in children with cochlear implant and its development should be part of rehabilitation care. KEYWORDS phonemic hearing, preschool age, cochlear implant, hearing impairmen