D I S C U S S I O N & C O N C L U S I O N AUDITORY PERFORMANCE OF A GROUP OF PEDIATRIC COCHLEAR IMPLANT USERS: HOW GOOD WERE THEY? Cila Umat, Wan Nur Hanim, Nur Izzati Mohd Yusof Audiology Program, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur I N T R O D U C T I O N R E S U L T S Children and adults with bilateral severe and profound sensorineural hearing loss in general have benefited from the use of cochlear implant technology. The use of cochlear implants have in general, facilitated young children with hearing impairment to develop speech and language and able to use oral communication mode while in adults, they regain communication ability. The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Cochlear Implant program commenced in 1995 and to-date (March 2012), approximately 330 patients (children and adults) have been implanted in our program. The present study aimed to quantify the auditory performance of a group of pediatric cochlear implant users in the UKM Cochlear Implant program. t(24)=3.86; p=0.001 t(15)=3.80; p=0.002 r=0.500; p=0.000 r=0.479; r=0.226; p=0.015 r = 0.281; p= 0.002 M E T H O D O L O G Y Subjects: A total of 115 children from the UKM Cochlear Implant program participated – 65 Malays, 50 Chinese Age at testing: 29 – 202 months; Mean = 97.4 ± 39.1 months Age at implantation: 11 – 142 months; Mean = 44.6 ± 18.0 months Duration of CI exp: 2 – 133 months; Mean = 52.3 ± 34.0 months Test materials: Parental questionnaires Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) & Meaningful Use of Speech Scale (MUSS) Malay Pediatric speech tests: Closed-set Monosyllable-Trochee-Polysyllable (MTP 3, 6, 12) – Words; Closed-set Matrix 3x3 – Sentences Mandarin pediatric speech test: Tone perception test (TPT) Test procedure: All subjects underwent aided sound-field thresholds test Parents were interviewed using the parental MAIS and MUSS questionnaires Speech tests were conducted according to subjects’ language ability. Higher test levels were performed first before level being down-graded or upgraded (e.g. Initially MTP12 words; if subject’s scored > 80%, proceed to Matrix sentence test). Tests were done in quiet and in +10 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) All tests were conducted in the sound-proof audiology booths and subjects wore their own speech processors with the normally used settings for the tests. D I S C U S S I O N & C O N C L U S I O N Majority of the children (49%) were using oral+cued/gestures communication mode. Only 40% (n=26) of the 65 Malay children were able to perform the Matrix sentence test in quiet, while only 17 (26%) were able to be tested in noise (+10dB SNR) suggesting their difficulties to perceive speech in auditory alone mode especially in noise. As for the Chinese children, only 22 children were tested on Level B (higher level difficulties). However, the difference in scores for Mandarin tone perception test in quiet and in noise was non-significant. The age at testing and duration of experience with the implant significantly correlated with the MAIS and MUSS scores, but not with any of the speech perception test results, possibly due to the relatively small number of subjects tested for both Malay and Mandarin speech tests. The outcomes suggest the performance of many of our CI children were still not ‘satisfactory’ and much support is needed to facilitate their speech and language development. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The study was funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation through the e-Sciencefund grant 06-01-02-SF0449. We would like to thank all CI children and their parents who attended the CI camps conducted at UKM Jalan Temerloh, Kuala Lumpur.