Monosyllable speech perception of Japanese hearing aid users with prelingual hearing loss: implications for surgical indication of cochlear implant.
OBJECTIVE
The monosyllable speech perception ability after years of educational intervention was compared between prelingually deafened pediatric hearing aid users and their cochlear implant counterparts.


METHODS
An open-set monosyllabic speech perception test was conducted on all subjects. The test required subjects to indicate a corresponding Japanese character to that spoken by the examiner. Fifty-two subjects with prelingual hearing impairment (47 hearing aid users and 5 cochlear implant users) were examined.


RESULTS
Hearing aid users with average pure-tone thresholds less than 90 dB HL demonstrated generally better monosyllable perception than 70%, which was equivalent or better performance than that of the cochlear implant group. Widely dispersed speech perception was observed within the 90-99 dB HL hearing-aid user group with most subjects demonstrating less than 50% speech perception. In the cluster of >100 dB HL, few cases demonstrated more than 50% in speech perception. The perception ability of the vowel part of each mora within the cochlear implant group was 100% and corresponding to that of hearing aid users with moderate and severe hearing loss.


CONCLUSIONS
Hearing ability among cochlear implant users can be comparable with that of hearing aid users with average unaided pure-tone thresholds of 90 dB HL, after monosyllabic speech perception testing was performed.
Fukuda
Shoichiro
S
Auditory Center for Hearing Impaired Children, Kanariya Gakuen, Okayama, Japan.
Fukushima
Kunihiro
K
Toida
Naomi
N
Tsukamura
Keiko
K
Maeda
Yukihide
Y
Kibayashi
Namiki
N
Nagayasu
Rie
R
Orita
Yorihisa
Y
Kasai
Norio
N
Kataoka
Yuko
Y
Nishizaki
Kazunori
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007804:Language Development; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*