title: The development of lateralization abilities in children with bilateral cochlear implants.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of lateralization skills in children who received bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) in sequential operations.
  
  
  METHODS
  The lateralization skills of 9 children with a mean age of 4.1 years at the first surgery and 5.5 years at the second surgery were assessed at 3 time intervals. Children were assessed with a 3-loudspeaker setup (front, left and right) at 0.9 years (interval I) and 1.6 years (interval II) after the second implantation, and after 5.3 years of bilateral implant use (interval III) with a 9-loudspeaker setup in the frontal horizontal plane between -90° and 90° azimuth.
  
  
  RESULTS
  With bilateral implants, a significant decrease in lateralization error was noted between test interval I (45.0°) and II (23.3°), with a subsequent significant decrease at test interval III (4.7°). Unilateral performance with the CI did not improve significantly between the first 2 intervals; however, there was a bias of responses towards the unilateral side by test interval III.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The lateralization abilities of children with bilateral CIs develop in a relatively short period of time (1-2 years) after the second implant. Children appear to be able to acquire binaural skills after bilateral cochlear implantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany. kuehn_h@klinik.uni-wuerzburg.de
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kühn
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schön
authors.forename: Karola
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Edelmann
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brill
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006312:Hearing Loss, Bilateral / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology*; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology