Factors affecting phoneme discrimination in children with sequential bilateral cochlear implants.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of a number of variables on phoneme discrimination (PD) performance in children with sequential bilateral cochlear implants (SeqBiCIs) and compare PD performance between the 2 implantation sides and between children with bilateral cochlear implants (BiCIs) and their age-matched peers with normal hearing (NH).

Design: All participants completed the Auditory Speech Sound Evaluation Phoneme Discrimination Test.

Study Sample: The sample included 23 children with SeqBiCIs as the study group and 23 with NH as the control group.

Results: A significant difference was found between the scores of the two groups under the CI and CI conditions ( = 0.001), CI and BiCI conditions ( = 0.002), and CI and BiCI conditions ( = 0.001). PD scores with CI significantly depend on age at CI and duration of bilateral use. PD scores with CI were significant predictors of PD performance with CI. Duration of BiCI use was a significant predictor of PD scores with BiCI.

Conclusions: The age at CI and the duration of bilateral cochlear implant use were found to improve phoneme discrimination performance in children with a sequential bilateral cochlear implant. According to the success of the CI, it is possible to predict the success of CI use.