Speech intelligibility in young cochlear implant recipients: Gains during year three

Abstract

This investigation sought to answer two questions: (1) Do children who receive cochlear implants (CIs) by 3;0 (years; months) improve speech intelligibility significantly during their third year of cochlear implant use? (2) How do the intelligibility scores of young CI recipients compare to those reported in the literature for children who receive CIs at older ages? These questions were addressed through a prospective, longitudinal research study in which children imitated short sentences at 24, 30 and 36 months post-activation. The sentences were played for adult listeners who were instructed to orthographically transcribe the words they recognized. Percent intelligibility scores then were calculated for each speech sample. Mean intelligibility scores increased significantly from 28% to 62% during the third year of CI use. The participants also reached comparable or higher levels of intelligibility within fewer months of CI experience than reported for children who received a CI at older ages. These findings support the notion that receiving a CI by 3 years of age is advantageous for developing connected speech that can be understood by unfamiliar listeners.