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 Niš) 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 urađeno oko 200 kohlearnih implantacija u četiri klinička centra (Beograd - KC Srbije i KBC Zvezdara, Novi Sad, Niš). Oko 10% bile su odrasle osobe sa razvijenim govorom, a oko 90% deca i to u prelingvalnoj, perilingvalnoj i ranoj postlingvalnoj fazi. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je da se ispita u kojoj meri poboljšanje auditivne percepcije govora pomoću kohlearnog implanta utiče na razvoj razumevanja apstraktnih pojmova kod gluve i nagluve dece u odnosu na decu sa konvencionalnim slušnim aparatima i čujuću decu. Metode. Istraživanje je urađeno na uzorku od 30 dece: 20 gluve i nagluve i 10 čujuće. Instrument je bio test rečnik. Rezultati. Računajući sve pojmove (100 reči) rezultati pokazuju i dalje značajnu razliku između čujuće i gluve dece. Deca koja čuju imenovala su, opisala ili definisala svih 100 reči sa 77,93% uspešnosti. Deca sa kohlearnim implantima postigla su 26,87%, a deca sa konvencionalnim slušnim aparatima 20,32% uspešnosti na svim pojmovima. Zaključak. Ispitivanje razlike u poznavanju apstraktnih pojmova pokazalo je statistički značajnu razliku (Mann-Whitney U-test, p = 0.019) između dece sa kohlearnim implantima i dece sa konvencionalnim slušnim aparatima, ukazujući na to da kohlearni implant ima značajnu prednost u odnosu na konvencionalne slušne aparate u povećanju uspešnosti razvoja govora kod gluve i veoma teško nagluve dece.