# Executive Functioning and Speech-Language Skills in Cochlear Implant Users

> **NIH NIH R01** · INDIANA UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS · 2020 · $604,627

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The primary objective of this research project is to identify the reciprocal links between EF and spoken
language skills in early-implanted prelingually deaf CI users. Our program of research has demonstrated that
oral-deaf cochlear implant users are at risk for delays in several components of executive functioning and that
their executive functioning skills are related to their speech and language outcomes in ways that differ from NH
peers. Two specific aims are proposed to accomplish our research objectives and provide new information
about the reciprocal links between executive functioning and spoken language skills in oral-deaf children who
use cochlear implants. In Specific Aim 1, experimental and assessment methods will be applied to a sample of
long-term cochlear implant users in two studies to identify the cognitive processing mechanisms by which
components of executive functioning support compensation of speech-language skills that are slow and
effortful in cochlear implant users, compared to normal-hearing peers. Studies will provide new information
about the use of executive functions to compensate for slow-effortful processing in speech perception as well
as robust, complex-adaptive spoken word recognition and language. In Specific Aim 2, preschool-aged oral-
deaf children with cochlear implants will be studied longitudinally to examine the reciprocal influences of EF
and spoken language skills early in their development. Experimental methods will be used to document
influences of spoken language skills on the emergence of early executive functioning components in children
as young as age 3, comparing differences in executive functioning development in samples of children with
cochlear implants and children with normal hearing. Additionally, longitudinal methods will be used to assess
relations between early executive functioning and later development of complex-adaptive spoken language
skills in cochlear implant users. These findings will have direct clinical implications for improving early
identification of prelingually deaf, early implanted cochlear implant users who may be at high risk for poor
neurocognitive and speech-language outcomes following cochlear implantation. By uncovering the
foundational processes by which specific EF components support compensation of speech-language
disturbances and delays in a sample of CI users, results of this research will identify novel targets and methods
for intervention to improve spoken language outcomes by modifying compensatory EF processes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9822181
- **Project number:** 5R01DC015257-04
- **Recipient organization:** INDIANA UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS
- **Principal Investigator:** WILLIAM G KRONENBERGER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $604,627
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-12-01 → 2021-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9822181

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9822181, Executive Functioning and Speech-Language Skills in Cochlear Implant Users (5R01DC015257-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9822181. Licensed CC0.

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