ABSTRACT
Background@#The development of auditory and speech perception ability of children with hearing loss is affected by many factors after they undergo cochlear implantation (CI). Age at CI (CI age) appears to play an important role among these factors. This study aimed to evaluate the development of auditory and speech perception ability and explore the impact of CI age on children with prelingual deafness present before 3 years of age.@*Methods@#Two hundred and seventy-eight children with pre-lingual deafness (176 boys and 102 girls) were included in this study, and the CI age ranged from 6 to 36 months (mean age, 19 months). Categorical auditory performance (CAP) was assessed to evaluate auditory ability, and the speech intelligibility rating was used to evaluate speech intelligibility. The evaluations were performed before CI and 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months after CI.@*Results@#The auditory ability of the pre-lingually hearing-impaired children showed the fastest development within 6 months after CI (k = 0.524, t = 30.992, P < 0.05); then, the progress started to decelerate (k = 0.14, t = 3.704, P < 0.05) and entered a plateau at the 24th month (k = 0.03, t = 1.908, P < 0.05). Speech intelligibility showed the fastest improvement between the 12th and 24th months after CI (k = 0.138, t = 5.365, P < 0.05); then, the progress started to decelerate (k = 0.026, t = 1.465, P < 0.05) and entered a plateau at the 48th month (k = 0.012, t = 1.542, P < 0.05). The CI age had no statistical significant effect on the auditory and speech abilities starting at 2 years after CI (P < 0.05). The optimal cutoff age for CI was 15 months.@*Conclusions@#Within 5 years after CI, the auditory and speech ability of young hearing-impaired children continuously improved, although speech development lagged behind that of hearing. An earlier CI age is recommended; the optimal cutoff age for CI is at 15 months.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND@#The development of auditory and speech perception ability of children with hearing loss is affected by many factors after they undergo cochlear implantation (CI). Age at CI (CI age) appears to play an important role among these factors. This study aimed to evaluate the development of auditory and speech perception ability and explore the impact of CI age on children with pre-lingual deafness present before 3 years of age.@*METHODS@#Two hundred and seventy-eight children with pre-lingual deafness (176 boys and 102 girls) were included in this study, and the CI age ranged from 6 to 36 months (mean age, 19 months). Categorical auditory performance (CAP) was assessed to evaluate auditory ability, and the speech intelligibility rating was used to evaluate speech intelligibility. The evaluations were performed before CI and 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months after CI.@*RESULTS@#The auditory ability of the pre-lingually hearing-impaired children showed the fastest development within 6 months after CI (k = 0.524, t = 30.992, P 0.05). The optimal cutoff age for CI was 15 months.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Within 5 years after CI, the auditory and speech ability of young hearing-impaired children continuously improved, although speech development lagged behind that of hearing. An earlier CI age is recommended; the optimal cutoff age for CI is at 15 months.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>The aim of this study is to investigate the development of auditory skills in Mandarin-speaking infants with normal hearing using IT-MAIS, set up normal comparison data for evaluating the auditory performance of children with hearing loss and provide a basis for establishing an appropriate hearing and speech rehabilitation program for them.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 183 infants with Mandarin-speaking patents participated in this investigation which was conducted in Beijing, China. 160 infants aged from 1 to 36 months were finally included, whose hearing were considered normal according to the history collection, high-risk registers for hearing loss and hearing screening using DPOAE. All infants were divided into 8 groups with 20 infants in each group by their ages. They were 1 month, 2-3 months, 4-6 months, 7-9 months, 10-12 months, 13-18 months, 19-24 months and 25-36 months group. The IT-MAIS/MAIS were administered to evaluate their development of auditory skills. All statistical analyses were executed using the MATLAB R2010a.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The detection scores improved with age and reached ceiling at 19 months in infants with normal hearing, the regression function for prediction of scores from age was score = 0.26×ln(age) + 0.23 and prediction of age from score was age = e([score-0.23])/0.26, r(2) = 0.93. The recognition scores also increased with age and reached ceiling at 24 months in infants with normal hearing, the regression function for prediction of scores from age was score = 0.26×ln(age)-0.07 and prediction of age from score was age = e([score+0.07])/0.34, r(2) = 0.93. The overall scores which combine the above two aspects augmented with age and reached ceiling at 22 months. The regression function for prediction of scores from age was score = 0.3×ln(age)+0.09 and prediction of age from score was age = e([score-0.09])/0.3, r(2) = 0.95.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Auditory skills showed a growth trend with age in infants with normal hearing. Scores of different auditory skills can be predicted according to their age. Age can also be predicted according to their scores of different auditory skills.</p>