OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of a teaching program on relationships between spoken sentences and corresponding figures on auditory comprehension, speech intelligibility, and oral generation of new sentences in a child with pre-lingual hearing impairment who uses a cochlear implant. CASE REPORT: Patient LG, 7 years of age, was referred to the school clinic after presenting difficulties in receptive and expressive language with significant losses in sequential organization and speech intelligibility and the diagnosis of ADHD. The program adopted auditory stimuli (6 formed sentences dictated by the common subject "boy" and their respective verb-object relationships "hold-the-ball," "see-the-ball," "hold-the-toy," "paint-the-toy," "see-the-present," and "paint-the-present") and visual relationships (figures showing the dictated sentences) were displayed by the computer. In the evaluation of pointing at figures, LG presented vocalizations without any correspondence with the appropriate dictation. The learning task consisted of selecting figures via dictated sentences and vocal imitation. LG learned the teaching tasks (100% for selection and 80% for imitation). Post-test naming of the figures was accurately performed. The ability to name new figures derived from a recombination of the taught elements was assessed (e.g., "boy paints ball," "see the toy," and "paint the present") and LG issued new sentences with 100% correspondence with the dictation. CONCLUSION: The intervention program helped enhance the speech intelligibility of a child who uses a cochlear implant through the transfer of skills in imitating words for picture naming, with potential generation of new verbal performances.
