Listening and Speech Development among under 6 Years Pre-Lingual Deaf Children following Cochlear Implantation in Selected Tertiary Hospitals in Dhaka

Children with severe to profound hearing disability got a drastic change in their lives by embracing cochlear implant. This study is done to compare the outcome of cochlear implant in listening using Category of Auditory Performance (CAP) and in speech development using Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR) score among under 6 year pre-lingual deaf children who underwent cochlear implantation. This cross-sectional study was carried out at the Armed Forces Medical Institute, National Institute of ENT and ENT outpatient department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University from October 2021 to September 2022. Total 384 pre-lingual deaf children with cochlear implant below 6 years of age were the study population of this study. The speech perception skill children with implants did not significantly differ between those under three years old and those over three. Impediment to cochlear implantation in Bangladeshi perspective was also analyzed.