Using Listening Progress Profile (LIP) to assess early functional auditory performance in young implanted children

Abstract

Listening Progress Profile (LIP) is a profile devised to monitor changes in the early auditory performance of young implanted children. The profile covers a range of abilities from first response to environmental sounds, through discrimination of environmental sounds and discrimination of voice, to identification of own names. This study, prospective and longitudinal, involved 68 prelingually deaf children (congenitally deaf or deafened before the age of three years and implanted before the age of five years). Prior to implantation the median score of LIP was zero. By the 3-month interval it had increased to 20; at the 6-month interval to 32; at the 12-month interval to 40; and at the 24-month interval it reached the maximum score available (42). The increase in scores at each interval following implantation was statistically significant. In conclusion, LIP was found to be a sensitive tool with which to measure the progress of auditory skills in young implanted children. The profile may help the implant programme and local professionals working with young implanted children, as well as parents, to obtain a measure of progress of auditory performance in the early stages following implantation, where other, more formal, measures may be inappropriate.