Results in children using the 22-electrode cochlear implant

Abstract

The Cochlear Implant Clinic, The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, 32 Gisborne Street, East Melbourne, Victoria 3052, Australia Five children (aged 6.0 to 14.8 years) out of a group of nine implanted with the 22-electrode cochlear implant (Cochlear Pty. Ltd.) have achieved substantial open-set speech recognition scores for monosyllabic word (30% to 72% for phonemes) and sentence (26% to 74% for words in sentences) tests using hearing without lipreading. Four of these five children were implanted during preadolescence and the fifth, who had a progressive loss, was implanted during adolescence. The remaining children who did not demonstrate open-set recognition were implanted during adolescence after a long duration of profound deafness. Post-operative performance on closed-set speech perception tests was better than preoperative performance for the group of five children with open-set recognition. Improvements in speech and language assessments were also noted for these children. The results are discussed with reference to variables that may contribute to successful implant use, such as age of onset of loss, duration of profound loss, age at implantation, aetiology, educational program, and the type of training provided.