Introduction:
Single sided deaf (SSD) cochlear implant (CI) supplied children are limited, among other things, in speech recognition in noise and for distant speakers. SSD children are affected in a sensible phase of their central nervous development of binaural hearing.
Methods:
Speech recognition in noise for a frontal distant and for two lateral speakers was measured in ten SSD CI children between five and twelve years of age. Speech recognition was tested with the Oldenburger children sentence test at a speech level of 65 dB(A) and a noise level of 55 dB(A). Four different listening conditions were assessed for the frontal speaker: 1) normal-hearing (NH) ear and CI turned off; 2) NH ear and CI; 3) NH ear and CI with Roger; 4) NH ear with Roger and CI. For the lateral speaker position conditions 2) to 4) were included.
Results:
A significant improvement in speech recognition can be demonstrated for all three speaker positions. SSD CI children with good speech recognition with the CI showed a significant improvement with Roger at the CI and NH ear, respectively. Especially in children with poorer speech recognition with the CI, there was a significantly greater benefit with the Roger at the NH ear than at the CI. Furthermore, a significant correlation between speech recognition with Roger at the CI and duration of CI use has been demonstrated.
Conclusions:
SSD CI children benefit from the Roger system for speech recognition in noise. Depending on speech recognition with the CI, an individual adaptation of the Roger to the CI ear or to the NH ear is necessary in order to achieve best possible care. Enhancing speech recognition with the CI leads to a better result with the Roger at the CI.
