Age as an important variable that affects auditory and language results after cochlear implant

Abstract

Cochlear implant (CI) benefits deaf children's speech perception, language development and speech production. Early fitting of an implant results in improved outcomes. Over a period of more than 3 decades, cochlear implantation (CI) is firmly known as safe and effective treatment for children with bilateral severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) who develop minimal or no benefit from conventional hearing aid use. The primary aim of CI is to improve auditory perception of the child and hence the spoken language. The development of functional spoken language would be the major long-term benefits of CI. Children who received a cochlear implant before a real delay in spoken language development (i.e., between 12–16 months) were more able to achieve age-appropriate spoken language. These results strengthen the idea of doing cochlear implantation before 24 months of age, especially for children with a better ear aided pure tone with average thresholds greater than 65 dB prior to surgery.The main aim is to study the effect of age on CI patients results by applying simple questioners on 31 CI children, that are easy to assess the auditory perception and discrimination as an important prerequisite for language development. Results There was an inverse correlation between; age at CI, categories of auditory performance (CAPS), and meaningful auditory integration scale (MAIS) scores. While; there was direct correlation between MAIS & CAPS scores. Conclusions The auditory perception development after CI in children being 3 years old or younger is much better than the older children which would be reflected on their speech perception and acquiring their 1st word and sentence, but language development did not differ between both groups for this period of follow up. With a need of further detailed full language aspects assessment and follow up to ensure these results.