Comparison of the development of early auditory and preverbal skills in Mandarin-Speaking children with cochlear implants with and without additional disabilities

Abstract

Background: Few studies had assessed the auditory and preverbal skills of very young cochlear implant (CI) children with additional disabilities (AD) over a long period, especially in China.

Aims/Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the early auditory and preverbal developmental trajectories in CI children with and without AD.

Material and Methods: The LittlEARS^® Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ) was employed. 29 typically developing (TD) children and 17 with AD were involved (age at implantation less than 2 years).

Results: All children showed significant improvement in total LEAQ scores with CI use. Children with cerebral palsy (CP), developmental delay (DD) and white matter lesions (WML) scored lower than TD children since 3 months of CI use; a decreasing trend was observed from 24, 18 and 18 months of CI use, respectively. Children with higher nonverbal developmental quotients exhibited superior early auditory and preverbal skills.

Conclusions and significance: The development of early auditory and preverbal skills among CI-using children progressed more slowly in those with AD (CP, DD or WML) than in TD children, but the differences between the two groups gradually diminished over time. Nonverbal cognitive status has a positive effect on early auditory and preverbal abilities.

背景：长期以来, 尤其是在中国, 很少有研究评估患有其它残疾（AD）的人工耳蜗（CI）幼童的听觉和言语能力。

目的：本研究的目的是比较有和没有AD的CI儿童的早期听觉和言语发展轨迹。

材料和方法：使用LittlEARS®听觉调查表（LEAQ）。涉及29名典型发育（TD）儿童和17名AD儿童（植入时年龄小于2岁）。

结果：在使用CI的情况下, 所有儿童的总LEAQ得分均有显著改善。自使用CI 3个月以来, 脑瘫（CP）、发育迟缓（DD）和白质病变（WML）的儿童得分低于TD儿童；这三类儿童使用CI分别24、18和18个月时都观察到下降的趋势。非语言发育商数较高的儿童表现出较高的早期听觉和言语能力。

结论和意义：使用CI的AD儿童（CP, DD或WML）在早期听觉和言语能力的发展方面比TD儿童缓慢, 但是随着时间的推移, 两组之间的差异逐渐减小。非语言认知状态对早期听觉和言语能力有积极影响。

Keywords:

• Additional disabilities
• cochlear implants
• children
• auditory and preverbal skill
• LEAQ

Acknowledgment

We thank all of the participants in this study. We also thank the audiologists at Beijing Children’s Hospital for their contributions to clarifying the chart data.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Beijing NOVA Program Interdisciplinary Cooperation Project [xxjc201617].