Speech intelligibility in children after cochlear implantation.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to evaluate the long-term speech intelligibility of young deaf children after cochlear implantation.


METHODS
The study design was a prospective study following a large group of consecutively implanted deaf children with up to 5 years' cochlear implant use.


METHODS
The study was conducted at a pediatric tertiary referral center for cochlear implantation.


METHODS
All children in the study were congenitally deaf or deafened before 3 years of age. They each received a Nucleus multichannel cochlear implant before the age of 7 years. Eighty-four subjects were evaluated up to 5 years after cochlear implantation.


METHODS
Cochlear implantation followed by an intensive program of local and center-based assessment and rehabilitation was performed.


METHODS
A speech intelligibility rating scale evaluated the spontaneous speech of each child before and at yearly intervals for 5 years after implantation.


RESULTS
After cochlear implantation, the difference between the speech intelligibility ratings increased significantly each year for 4 years (Mann-Whitney U-test). For the first 2 years, the average rating remained "prerecognizable words" or "unintelligible speech." It was not until the 3-year interval that the average intelligibility rating became category 3 (intelligible speech if someone concentrates and lip-reads). At the 4-year interval, 85% of children had some intelligible connected speech. This improvement continued, and at the 5-year interval, the median speech intelligibility was category 4 (intelligible speech to a listener with a little experience of deaf speech) and the mode was category 5 (intelligible speech to all listeners).


CONCLUSIONS
Congenital and prelingually deaf children gradually develop intelligible speech that does not plateau 5 years after implantation.
Allen
M C
MC
Department of Otolaryngology, Nottingham Paediatric Cochlear Implant Programme, University Hospital, Queen's Medical Centre NHS Trust, United Kingdom.
Nikolopoulos
T P
TP
O'Donoghue
G M
GM
D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003638:Deafness / Q000151:congenital / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016896:Treatment Outcome