[Testing and re-education of candidates for the SIVO prosthesis]

The SIVO prosthesis, developed by Pr A. Fourcin (London), is an aid to lip reading for profoundly deaf patients with residual hearing at low frequencies below 500 Hz. This prosthesis reduces the complexity of the acoustic wave of speech to sa simple sinusoidal wave, allowing better perception of the fundamental frequency of the voice and its variations, i.e. pitch and intonation. The inclusion assessment of patients is twofold: evaluation of the perception of language (audiometry and computerised video tests evaluating the capacities for recognition of sounds and for lip reading), evaluation of voice production and language. Orthophonic re-education depends on the results of the various tests performed and is based on computer programmes, allowing better feed-back by visual control. As a result of the progress in computer and video technology, these tests can be standardised and used not only for candidates for the SIVO prosthesis, but also for all profoundly deaf subjects.