Cochlear Implantation in Young Mandarin-Speaking Children: One Year After First Fitting

Introduction Bilateral cochlear implantation has been shown to be beneficial in terms of sound localization and speech recognition in children with congenital deafness. However, little is known about the benefits of bilateral cochlear implantationin children who communicate in a tonal language such as Mandarin. This study aims to investigate the auditory perception and speech intelligibility of Mandarin-speaking children 1 year after first fitting. Materials and Methods Twenty-nine children aged between 11.5 and 17.9 months with severe-to-profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were recruited; 10 were unilaterally implanted and 19 were bilaterally implanted. A test battery was used to monitor improvements during the first year of cochlear implant use. Results Bilaterally implanted children scored better in the spatial domain of the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of hearing scale for Parents (SSQ-P) in comparison to unilaterally implanted children. Significant improvements were observed in auditory performance and speech intelligibility at 6 and 12 months after first fitting for both groups of children. Discussion Young children that speak a tonal language, such as Mandarin, can obtain significant improvements in hearing and speech abilities within the first year of cochlear implant use. Furthermore, bilateral implantation provides users with better spatial hearing in comparison to unilateral implantation.