Comparison of speech perception in pediatric CLARION (R) cochlear implant and hearing aid users

Multichannel cochlear implants (CIs) allow many profoundly deaf children to achieve high levels of speech perception. Ln order to develop optimal crit eria for implantation, it is crucial to test representative samples (or, if possible, full populations) of CI users and compare their results to those of hearing aid (HA) users of the same age and communication mode (oral or total communication) to determine which subgroups of HA users may obtain mo re perceptual benefit from a CI than from an HA. Word and phoneme identific ation skills of deaf children who use either HAs or CIs were evaluated and compared. The CI group included all of the prelingually deaf children in th e United States who were implanted with the CLARION(R) Multi Strategy(TM) C ochlear Implant during the clinical trial (as of January 1998). Before impl antation, the mean scores on the PB-K test (scored phonemically) were lower for prospective CI users than for HA users. However, by 12 to 18 months po stimplantation, the average scores for the CI users were higher than those of HA users with residual hearing in the 101- to 110-dB hearing level (HL) range. The CI scores were similar to those of HA users with residual hearin g in the 90- to 100-dB HL range.