[Cochlear Implantation in Single-Sided Deafness - Six Years of Follow-Up from Diagnosis and Consistent Use, Through...

This article describes the rehabilitation of a girl who passed newborn hearing screening but was diagnosed with left single-sided deafness at age 2 years and 10 months following assessment for speech and language delay with poor speech intelligibility. At the time, experience in auditory rehabilitation after cochlear implantation for single-sided deafness was limited, and the mother encountered various approaches. Rehabilitation goals, set with the treatment team, focused on developing bilateral hearing, enhancing directional perception, improving speech understanding in noise, and developing speech comprehension in the implanted ear without interference from the hearing ear. Auditory learning involved Direct Streaming of recorded and live speech, videos, and games to the implant. Exclusive exposure to these stimuli was achieved by sealing the hearing ear with an earphone playing classical music. Later, rehabilitation enhanced auditory fusion, increased environmental sound awareness, and improved sound localization while managing noise. Speech understanding in noise was practiced with speech on the implanted side and noise on the hearing side or both from the front.