The LittlEARS® Auditory Questionnaire : An analysis of multicentre data of children after early bilateral cochlear implant placement

Abstract

In order to optimise the support of children with cochlear implants (CI), it is very important to detect slow developmental processes as early as possible. Data from the LittlEARS® Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ) from children with early bilateral CI are evaluated and presented in relation to age and hearing age and compared with language development data recorded later. This retrospective multicentre study included data from atotal of 554children for whom at least one LEAQ was completed during the course of CI rehabilitation. Children without additional disabilities who received bilateral simultaneous or sequential CI treatment were included. As expected, there are high correlations between hearing age (HA) and the overall LEAQ total score. When analysed according to chronological age (CA), development runs roughly parallel to the development of children with normal hearing, albeit at alower level. Children implanted early up to an age of ≤ 12months consistently achieve approximately 7-8 raw points more. Only the LEAQ results of the later test times (from the age of 18months) correlate with some areas of the speech development test for children (SETK; areas 3-5). The earliest possible detection of critical developmental processes in children with CI is extremely important. In the case of very early CI fitting, the CA should be used as areference measure in diagnostics. The LEAQ values determined for the group of children with CI are suitable to alimited extent as generally valid reference values for children with early bilateral CI. Further studies should continue to work out the correlations between early preverbal development and later speech development.