Realization of complex onsets by pediatric users of cochlear implants

This study examined variations in English complex onset realizations by children who use cochlear implants. Data consisted of 227 productions of two-segment onset clusters from 12 children. In general, onset cluster realizations of children with cochlear implants did not differ markedly from those reported for children with normal hearing: null realizations were rare or nonexistent, there were few epenthetic realizations, one-segment realizations generally respected sonority principles, and two-segment realizations reflected singleton constraints. Further examination also revealed that the basis for variation among the children with cochlear implants could be attributed to differences in constraint rankings within Optimality Theory. Differences in constraint rankings could thus account for variations in the number of output segments, in the role of sonority in reduction, and in relationships between segmental and featural faithfulness.