OBJECTIVE: To verify whether an intervention based on the teaching of relations between dictated object-quality linguistic expressions and corresponding figures would enable auditory comprehension, the intelligible appointment of figures, and oral production of new linguistic expressions in a child with pre-lingual hearing impairment and a cochlear implant. CASE REPORT: Patient LG, 7 years, with a cochlear implant, was referred to the school clinic after presenting difficulties in receptive and expressive language, with significant losses in speech intelligibility, and the diagnosis of ADHD. The child was taught using auditory stimuli (3 dictated expressions of an object-quality relationship [e.g., "dinosaur-green," "car-red," and "ball-blue"]) and visual stimuli (figures corresponding to the dictated object-quality relationship). Before the patient was taught to name the figures, the patient named the figures but with no correspondence to the dictated object-quality relationships. The therapy involved teaching the patient to select figures according to the dictated relationship and vocal imitation of the dictated object-quality relationship. LG learned the tasks (100% in selection and 90% in imitation). After the therapy, the patient successfully (100% success) named the figures. The ability to identify new figures derived from the recombination of the taught elements was assessed (e.g., "car-green," "ball-green," "dinosaur-red," "ball-red," "dinosaur-blue," and "car-blue"), and LG successfully delivered new linguistic expressions with 100% accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: The intervention program helped enhance the intelligible appointment of object-quality relationships in a child who used a cochlear implant; it also showed the child's potential to generate new verbal performances.
