A CLINICAL REPORT ON RECEPTIVE VOCABULARY SKILLS IN COCHLEAR IMPLANT USERS

Objective: The aim was to measure the rate of vocabulary acquisition f or cochlear implant users and compare the pre- and postoperative rates with published data for other groups with normal or impaired hearing. The hypothesis was that the postoperative rate would be greater than the preoperative rate. Design: The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PP VT) was administered to 32 children, adolescents, and prelinguisticall y deafened adults implanted with the 22-electrode cochlear implant. Ag e at implantation ranged from 2 yr 6 mo to 20 yr and implant use range d from 6 mo to 7 yr 8 mo. Results: The group mean postoperative perfor mance at various postoperative intervals was significantly higher than mean preoperative performance. Single-subject data indicated statisti cally significant gains over time on this test for 13 of the subjects. The mean postoperative rate of vocabulary acquisition of 1.06 times t he rate for normally hearing children was significantly greater than t he mean preoperative rate of 0.43. Conclusions: These rates of improve ment were in accord with previous reports on smaller numbers of implan t users, but could not be attributed unambiguously to use of the impla nt because no control group was used for this clinical work. Variables such as age at implantation, duration of profound deafness, communica tion mode, and speech perception skill failed to significantly predict rate of improvement on the PPVT.