Variation in speech perception scores among children with cochlear implants

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify common factors affec ting speech perception scores in children with cochlear implants. Design: Speech perception data for 167 implanted children mere collected at two cochlear implant centres in Melbourne and Sydney. The data comprised a udition-alone scores on open-set word and sentence tests. Children were sel ected on the basis that they had a Nucleus 22-electrode cochlear implant. T he average age of the children was 5 yr. Information was also collected abo ut 12 factors that may have influenced speech perception scores for each ch ild. Analysis of covariance was used to identify factors that significantly affected speech perception scores. Pearson pairwise correlation coefficien ts were also calculated for all factors analyzed. Results: The analyses in this study identified factors that accounted for 5 1%, 34%, and 45% of the variance in phoneme, word and sentence perception s cores. Scores decreased by 1.4 to 2.4% per year of profound deafness prior to implantation. Children who normally use oral communication. scored signi ficantly higher than children normally using sign or simultaneous oral and sign communication. Children implanted in Sydney scored higher on average t han children implanted in Melbourne. Conclusions: The results show that a significant part of the variation in s peech perception scores is systematically related to audiological and envir onmental factors for each child. The reasons for significant differences be tween children using different communication modes or from different clinic s were not identified.