Speech recognition in children with unilateral and bilateral cochlear implants in quiet and in noise
Date
2008-12
Authors
Dawood, Gouwa
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
Individuals are increasingly undergoing bilateral cochlear implantation in an attempt to
benefit from binaural hearing. The main aim of the present study was to compare the
speech recognition of children fitted with bilateral cochlear implants, under binaural and
monaural listening conditions, in quiet and in noise. Ten children, ranging in age from 5
years 7 months to 15 years 4 months, were tested using the Children’s Realistic Index for
Speech Perception (CRISP). All the children were implanted with Nucleus multi-channel
cochlear implant systems in sequential operations and used the ACE coding strategy
bilaterally. The duration of cochlear implant use ranged from 4 years to 8 years 11
months for the first implant and 7 months to 3 years 5 months for the second implant.
Each child was tested in eight listening conditions, which included testing in the presence
and absence of competing speech. Performance with bilateral cochlear implants was not
statistically better than performance with the first cochlear implant, for both quiet and
noisy listening conditions. A ceiling effect may have resulted in the lack of a significant
finding as the scores obtained during unilateral conditions were already close to
maximum. A positive correlation between the length of use of the second cochlear
implant and speech recognition performance was established. The results of the present
study strongly indicated the need for testing paradigms to be devised which are more
sensitive and representative of the complex auditory environments in which cochlear
implant users communicate.
Description
Thesis (MAud (Interdisciplinary Health Sciences. Speech-Language and Hearing Therapy)--Stellenbosch University, 2008.
Keywords
Cochlear implants, Unilateral cochlear implants, Bilateral cochlear implants, Speech recognition, Speech perception, Binaural benefit, Competing noise, Hearing impaired children -- Language -- Ability testing