Spatial hearing abilities among children with bimodal versus unilateral cochlear implant: parents report on spatial hearing questionnaire

Background: Spatial hearing questionnaire (SHQ) is a questionnaire developed and validated for evaluating the spatial hearing abilities for the tasks of localization of sound to complex task of speech perception in noise. SHQ is adapted in Dutch language, and in Persian language. The study aimed to compare the spatial hearing abilities of children using bimodal cochlear implant and unilateral cochlear implant using spatial hearing questionnaire a subjective assessment tool, SHQ. Methods: The participants of the study included parents of 30 cochlear implant using children of age range 5-10 years, among 30 participants, 16 belonged to parents of children using unilateral cochlear implant and 14 were parents of children using bimodal cochlear implants. SHQ consisted of 24 questions distributed under 8 domains and the responses from the parents were collected over telephonic interview and statistically analyzed across domains. Results: The results revealed that there was no significant difference observed between both the groups across all the 8 domains, except perception of children’s voice, showed statistical difference between 2 groups. The baseline of spatial skills in children population using unilateral and bimodal cochlear implants was analysed. Conclusions: Across the 8 domains of spatial hearing questionnaire there were no significant statistical difference found between unilateral and bimodal cochlear implanted groups.