Assessment of Mandarin-speaking pediatric cochlear implant recipients with the Mandarin Early Speech Perception (MESP) test

Abstract

Objective The primary purpose of the current study was to evaluate the Mandarin Early Speech Perception (MESP) test for use in objective outcome assessment of pediatric CI recipients in China. Although almost 5000 pediatric CIs have been implanted in China, very little is known about the speech perception abilities of these recipients, in large part because of the previous unavailability of objective outcome assessment tools for Mandarin-speaking children. Method The Mandarin Early Speech Perception (MESP) test was administered to 25 pediatric Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant (CI) recipients implanted under the age of 10 years at West China Hospital of Sichuan University. Results Data from 22 children reaching MESP Categories 3 (Spondee Perception), 5 (Consonant Perception), and 6 (Tone Perception) were analyzed. The 5 children reaching Category 6 were significantly younger at implantation than children reaching the other two categories. Comparison of MESP scores for CI recipients and normally hearing children revealed that scores for the majority of CI recipients reaching Categories 3 and 5 fell within the range of normal performance, while scores for all CI recipients reaching Category 6 exceeded the average normal performance. MESP scores for Mandarin-speaking CI recipients and ESP scores for English-speaking CI recipients [1] fell on a common trajectory that, after slightly more than 3 years of age, exceeded the ceiling defined by the first four categories common to both tests. After 4 years of age, most Mandarin-speaking had reached Category 6. Conclusions These results provide preliminary validation of the MESP test for use in evaluation of Mandarin-speaking pediatric CI recipients. Use of objective outcome assessment tools such as the MESP following early cochlear implantation can be used to document the progress of CI recipients and identify those recipients who may need additional rehabilitative intervention.