Nasal vowel production and grammatical processing in French-speaking children with cochlear implants and normal-hearing peers.

Our study investigates morphemic receptive skills, quality of phonological representations, and production abilities of the acoustic nasal feature in French, a language with nasal vocalic phonemes. We examine these skills in two groups: children with cochlear implants (CI group) and their normal hearing peers (NH group). The results reveal weaker receptive skills and more phonological errors in production among the CI group. Additionally, the CI group shows a specific use of different acoustic cues associated with vowel nasality, suggesting a perceptual-productive profile that focuses more on perceptually salient cues. This profile may be related to language skills, as the use of subtle acoustic cues is associated with better morphemic processing skills.