A cohort study of children using multichannel tactile AIDS and cochlear implants

Abstract

Children with profound deafness profit from systematic training with multichannel tactile sensory aids when these are used in conjunction with hearing aids. Children's performance on a graded battery of speech perception tests suggests continued improvement over time including progression from pattern perception to open set word identification. The pattern shown by carefully educationally and auditorily matched children with cochlear implants in the present study is indistinguishable from that of children using tactile aids plus hearing aids. CI performance in the present study was similar to that of children reported in Osberger et al. (1991), even though the implanted children in the present study were of low SES and most had Spanish or Spanish mixed with English in the home. At this point in time multichannel tactile aids plus hearing aids provide a viable alternative to cochlear implants for some children. It may be, however, that with additional duration of device use, we may begin to see an advantage for one or the other device type. Continued intensive longitudinal study is necessary to provide useful comparisons among a variety of children so that we may better select devices that may make it possible for children to become successful sensory aid users.

Publication Title

Seminars in Hearing

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