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Updated: May 9, 2026
Systematic Hearing Performance Evaluation Process for Adolescents with Cochlear Implantation at Early Ages
Published on: March 24, 2023
Effects of Multimodal Acoustic Therapy for Children With Cochlear Implants: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Jonghwa Jeonglok Park1,2, Minyoung Shin1,3, Jiyeon Ha1
1BELL Therapeutics Inc., Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a smartphone-based rehabilitation method, Multimodal Acoustic Therapy (MAT), integrating linguistic and nonlinguistic auditory training in improving hearing outcomes in cochlear implant (CI) users.
Method:
A double-blind, active-controlled randomized clinical trial was conducted at Seoul National University Hospital, South Korea. Thirty-three CI users aged 8-20 years with over 2 years of device use were randomized to MAT or control groups. Participants underwent 8 weeks of home-based training using a smartphone-based digital therapeutic. The MAT group received structured training designed to improve frequency and phoneme discrimination using both linguistic stimuli and nonlinguistic auditory stimuli with auditory-visual feedback. The control group listened to a curated playlist of various music genres through a smartphone application. The primary outcome was a change in melodic contour identification score for music perception. Secondary outcomes were changes in consonant, vowel, and monosyllabic word tests for speech perception. Outcomes were compared at baseline and after 8 weeks of training.
Results:
Of 33 randomized participants, 28 completed the trial (MAT, n = 13; control, n = 15). Compared with the control group, the MAT group demonstrated greater improvements in melodic contour identification (mean change = +11.5 percentage points, 95% CI [+3.6, +19.4] vs. +0.1 percentage points, 95% CI [-2.8, +3.0]; p = .010) and consonant identification (+14.1 percentage points [+8.0, +20.2] vs. +5.9 percentage points [+2.3, +9.5]; p = .028). Vowel identification (median change = +7.1 percentage points, interquartile range [IQR, 0, +7.1]) and monosyllabic word recognition (median change = +5.6 percentage points, IQR [0, +11.1]) also showed significant gains in the MAT group (p = .016 and p = .007, respectively), whereas the control group showed minimal or no (p = .831 and p = .114, respectively) improvement.
Conclusions:
MAT improved hearing outcomes in experienced pediatric and adolescent CI users. These findings support the use of digital therapeutics as a feasible and practical approach to auditory rehabilitation.
Supplemental Material:
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.32129725.
