Auditory perception and speech identification in children with cochlear implants tested with the EARS protocol

The performance of children who receive a cochlear implant may be dependent on both age of the child at implantation and the amount of experience with the implant. In the present study, changes in auditory perception and spee ch identification were investigated with experience of 71 children who had received a cochlear implant. The children were divided into three groups, t hose above and those below the age of 7 years at the time of implantation, and those aged 3 years or younger deafened by meningitis. The children rece ived either the Nucleus 22, the Nucleus 24 or the Med El C40+ implant. The test material was a reduced form of the EARS evaluation protocol developed by Med El into a multi-language format. Tests were performed pre-operativel y, within 2-5 days of first fitting of the speech processor, then at 1, 3 a nd 6 months and every 6 months thereafter, for a total period of 24 months. The results indicated that all children showed improvement after 6-12 mont hs. The rate of improvement differed between age groups. Children over 7 ye ars of age had pre-operatively higher test scores than younger children, pr esumably because of their previous experience with hearing aids. These chil dren showed an immediate post-operative drop in performance that recovered 1-3 months later. The children aged under 7 years started at lower performa nce levels but approached those of the older children after 12 months' coch lear implant use because their post-operative drop was less significant and their performance improved faster. Children who had been deafened by menin gitis and implanted at the age of 3 or less made little progress over the f irst 6 months but approached test levels of the under-7-year-olds by 18 mon ths or later. All three components of the evaluation protocol employed the Listening Progress Profile (LiP), the Monosyllabic-Trochee-Polysyllabic Tes t (MTP) and the Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) and proved to be valuable in demonstrating improvement in performance of cochlear implant children in all age groups once the immediate post-operative drop had been overcome.