COMPARISON OF THE SPEECH AND PITCH PERCEPTION SKILLS OF CHILDREN USING A COCHLEAR IMPLANT, HEARING AIDS, OR BIMODAL STIMULATION

Looi V (1), Radford C (1), Peryman P (2,1).

(1) Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; (2) Van Asch Deaf Education Centre, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Improved speech perception in noise, and melody recognition using binaural bimodal stimulation (BBS) compared to a cochlear implant (CI) only has been widely documented in adults, but less so in children. For this study BBS was defined as the simultaneous use of a CI in one ear, and a hearing aid (HA) in the contralateral ear. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of any benefits provided by BBS on tasks of speech and pitch perception in children.

Four groups of children were recruited: CI-only users (n=8); bilateral HA-only users with bilateral severe to profound losses (n=6); experienced BBS users (n=9); and children with normal hearing (NH; n=16). All children were assessed using HINT sentences in quiet and noise (10dB SNR), and a pitch-ranking task.

Preliminary results suggest that there were significant differences (p < 0.05; 2-way RM ANOVA) between the groups for the HINT test, with the NH group scoring significantly better than the CI group, but no different to the HA or BBS group. Scores were also significantly higher in quiet than noise. For the pitch test there were significant differences between the groups for each subtest (p < 0.05; 1-way ANOVA), with the main differences appearing to be between the NH & CI, NH & BBS, HA & CI, and HA & BBS groups. There was no significant difference between the NH & HA groups.

Overall the findings suggest that different modes of stimulation can provide different outcomes for children with a CI and/or HAs for speech and pitch perception.

Email: valerie.looi@canterbury.ac.nz