Introduction Children with unilateral deafness may experience delays in language development.
Since language acquisition extends into primary school age, the language level of
unilaterally deaf children (SSD) with cochlear implants (CI) in the age group 5 to
10 years will be examined and speech understanding with CI will be determined.
Methods The study group included 6 SSD children who were deaf between 0 and 6.5 years of
age and treated with a CI between 3.5 and 7 years of age. One child has a dysplastic
auditory nerve and 5 children have inconspicuous findings. The language level test
for children aged between 5 and 10 years (SET 5 - 10) was conducted according to age
groups. The audiological results were obtained with the Freiburg number and monosyllable
test and the HSM sentence test in quiet and in background noise S/N 10dB in direct
coupling.
Results In 5 of the 6 children examined here, language acquisition at primary school age
is age-appropriate and includes the child with dysplastic auditory nerve. One child
has conspicuous grammatical features (morphology). In all children, the working memory
in the subtest processing speed is within the normal range of peers. In the test battery
for adults, the 5 children with intact auditory nerve achieve number understanding
with CI between 80 and 100%.
Conclusions The children with intact hearing nerve have developed speech understanding with CI.
The speech level at primary school age in 5/6 SSD children, including the child with
dysplastic auditory nerve, has been developed according to standards. The standard-compliant
working memory enables the development of age-appropriate language acquisition. The
CI supply enables speech understanding on both sides.
Poster-PDF
A-1705.PDF
