Auditory Learning in Children With Cochlear Implants

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine and characterize the training-induced changes in speech-in-noise perception in children with congenital deafness who have cochlear implants (CIs). Method: Twenty-seven children with congenital deafness who have CIs were studied. Eleven children with CIs were trained on a speech-in-noise task, number recognition in white noise, at home for 5 weeks (total 40 hr). Speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) in the trained, partially trained (numbers in speech-shaped noise), and untrained (digit triplets in speech-shaped noise) conditions were measured before, immediately after, and 3 weeks after training completion. Data were also collected from children (n = 13) and adults (n = 5) with normal hearing for comparison. Results: Analyses indicated that following training, the performance of children with CIs improved for all speech-in-noise tasks (Delta SRT was approximately 3 dB). Training-induced improvements in speech-in-noise performance were retained for 3 weeks following cessation of training. Untrained children with CIs showed no such improvements. The performance of children with CIs, even after intensive training, was significantly lower than children and adults with normal hearing. Conclusions: Training enhances speech-in-noise performance for children with congenital deafness who have CIs. Learning effects were stable and generalized to similar but untrained conditions. Current findings are encouraging for the consideration of home-based auditory training to be included in the pediatric CI habilitation programs.