SPEECH-PERCEPTION AFTER MULTICHANNEL COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION IN THE PEDIATRIC-PATIENT

Clinical trials to evaluate multichannel cochlear implantation in chil dren ages 2 to 17 years began in late 1986, with pre-market approval g ranted in 1990. To date, 870 children in the United States have receiv ed the Nucleus 22-channel device. Performance on measures of speech pe rception in 30 children who have used the Nucleus cochlear implant for a minimum of 6 months is presented and discussed in terms of the pred ictive value of patient biographic variables. Age at implantation and age to deafness onset were positively correlated with test performance for pre- and perilinguistically deafened subjects.