Cochlear implant: Speech and language development in deaf and hard of hearing children following implantation

Abstract

Bacground/Aim. Almost 200 cochlear implantations were done in the four centers (two in Belgrade, per one in Novi Sad and Nis) in Serbia from 2002 to 2009. Less than 10% of implantees were postlingually deaf adults. The vast majority, i.e. 90% were pre- and perilingually profoundly deaf children. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of improved auditory perception due to cochlear implantation on comprehension of abstract words in children as compared with hearing impaired children with conventional hearing aids and normal hearing children. Methods. Thirty children were enrolled in this study: 20 hearing impaired and 10 normal hearing. The vocabulary test was used. Results. The overall results for the whole test (100 words) showed a significant difference in favor of the normal hearing as compared with hearing impaired children. The normal hearing children successfully described or defined 77.93% of a total of 100 words. Success rate for the cochlear implanted children was 26.87% and for the hearing impaired children with conventional hearing aids 20.32%. Conclusion. Testing for abstract words showed a statistically significant difference between the cochlear implanted and the hearing impaired children with hearing aids (Mann- Whitney U-test, p = 0.019) implying considerable advantage of cochlear implants over hearing aids regarding successful speech development in prelingually deaf children.Uvod/Cilj. U periodu od 2002. do 2009. godine u Srbiji je uradjeno oko 200 kohlearnih implantacija u cetiri klinicka centra (Beograd - KC Srbije i KBC Zvezdara, Novi Sad, Nis). Oko 10% bile su odrasle osobe sa razvijenim govorom, a oko 90% deca i to u prelingvalnoj, perilingvalnoj i ranoj postlingvalnoj fazi. Cilj ovog istrazivanja bio je da se ispita u kojoj meri poboljsanje auditivne percepcije govora pomocu kohlearnog implanta utice na razvoj razumevanja apstraktnih pojmova kod gluve i nagluve dece u odnosu na decu sa konvencionalnim slusnim aparatima i cujucu decu. Metode. Istrazivanje je uradjeno na uzorku od 30 dece: 20 gluve i nagluve i 10 cujuce. Instrument je bio test recnik. Rezultati. Racunajuci sve pojmove (100 reci) rezultati pokazuju i dalje znacajnu razliku izmedju cujuce i gluve dece. Deca koja cuju imenovala su, opisala ili definisala svih 100 reci sa 77,93% uspesnosti. Deca sa kohlearnim implantima postigla su 26,87%, a deca sa konvencionalnim slusnim aparatima 20,32% uspesnosti na svim pojmovima. Zakljucak. Ispitivanje razlike u poznavanju apstraktnih pojmova pokazalo je statisticki znacajnu razliku (Mann-Whitney U-test, p = 0.019) izmedju dece sa kohlearnim implantima i dece sa konvencionalnim slusnim aparatima, ukazujuci na to da kohlearni implant ima znacajnu prednost u odnosu na konvencionalne slusne aparate u povecanju uspesnosti razvoja govora kod gluve i veoma tesko nagluve dece. PR Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179055: The impact of cohlear implantation on educating the deaf and hearing impaired