title: Cochlear implant--speech and language development in deaf and hard of hearing children following implantation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Almost 200 cochlear implantations were done in the four centers (two in Belgrade, per one in Novi Sad and Nis) in Serbia from 2002 to 2009. Less than 10% of implantees were postlingually deaf adults. The vast majority, i.e. 90% were pre- and perilingually profoundly deaf children. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of improved auditory perception due to cochlear implantation on comprehension of abstract words in children as compared with hearing impaired children with conventional hearing aids and normal hearing children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty children were enrolled in this study: 20 hearing impaired and 10 normal hearing. The vocabulary test was used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall results for the whole test (100 words) showed a significant difference in favor of the normal hearing as compared with hearing impaired children. The normal hearing children successfully described or defined 77.93% of a total of 100 words. Success rate for the cochlear implanted children was 26.87% and for the hearing impaired children with conventional hearing aids 20.32%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Testing for abstract words showed a statistically significant difference between the cochlear implanted and the hearing impaired children with hearing aids (Mann-Whitney U-test, p = 0.019) implying considerable advantage of cochlear implants over hearing aids regarding successful speech development in prelingually deaf children.
authors.affiliation: University in Belgrade, Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation, Surdology Department, Belgrade, Serbia. snjostojic@gmail.com
authors.forename: Sanja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ostojić
authors.forename: Sanja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Djoković
authors.forename: Nadezda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dimić
authors.forename: Branka
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mikić
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003638:Deafness / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006310:Hearing Aids; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D013067:Speech Perception