Speech Perception by Children with the Clarion (CIS) or Nucleus 22 (SPEAK) Cochlear Implant or Hearing Aids

Abstract

Multichannel cochlear implants allow many children with prelingual (< 3 years of age) profound hearing loss to obtain high levels of speech perception. New devices and processing strategies provide substantial benefit to many children with cochlear implants (CIs). Two groups of children with profound prelingual hearing loss who received implants prior to the age of six participated in the study: (1) all children in the U.S. (N=179) who received a Clarion implant (CIS strategy) prior to June 1997 and participated in the clinical trials for FDA approval; and (2) all 40 children who received a Nucleus-22 implant (SPEAK strategy) and participated in the Indiana University CI program. Twenty-six children who wear hearing aids acted as the control group in the study. Speech perception was assessed with the Mr. Potato Head Test (Robbins, 1993) a modified open-set test of word recognition. Performance for the children who use CIs was compared to predictions from a linear regression analysis of chronological age on test score for the children who use hearing aids. By 12-18 months of implant use, average performance for the children with implants equaled average performance predicted for the children with hearing aids at the same chronological age. Significant differences were not found between the two groups of children who use implants, perhaps due to the small number of participants who were followed up to 18 months in this study.