Speech Intelligibility of Cochlear-Implanted and Normal-Hearing Children.

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Speech-Language Pathology
• Pediatric Medicine

Background:

• Speech intelligibility is crucial for evaluating cochlear implant effectiveness.
• Assessing verbal understanding in children with hearing impairments is essential.
• Cochlear implantation aims to improve auditory perception and communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare speech intelligibility in Persian between cochlear-implanted children and normal-hearing children.
• To evaluate the efficacy of the Persian sentence speech intelligibility test in differentiating these groups.
• To investigate the impact of cochlear implantation on verbal comprehension in children.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 26 cochlear-implanted children (48-95 months) and 40 normal-hearing children (48-84 months) participated.
• Participants received speech therapy sessions, with an average post-implantation time of 14.53 months.
• The Persian sentence speech intelligibility test was administered to assess verbal understanding.

Main Results:

• Cochlear-implanted children achieved a mean speech intelligibility score of 63.71% (SD, 1.06).
• Normal-hearing children demonstrated 100% speech intelligibility (P<0.000).
• No significant effects of age or gender on speech intelligibility were found within the studied age ranges (P>0.05).

Conclusions:

• Speech intelligibility in Persian is significantly lower in cochlear-implanted children compared to their normal-hearing peers.
• The Persian sentence speech intelligibility test effectively differentiates speech understanding levels between these groups.
• Further research may explore factors influencing speech intelligibility post-cochlear implantation.