Residual Hearing Improves Early Auditory Perception and Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Cochlear Implants

BACKGROUND: To investigate the relationship between residual hearing and early auditory speech performance in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants. METHODS: Twenty-four prelingually deaf children implanted with a cochlear implants participated in the study. Auditory performance and speech intelligibility were longitudinally evaluated by categories of auditory performance, infant-toddler meaningful auditory integration scale/meaningful auditory integration scale, speech intelligibility rating, and meaningful use of speech scale. According to the postoperative pure tone average threshold, children were grouped as “better” and “worse” residual hearing. RESULTS: Better hearing preservation was observed in 7 children (29.2%) and worse preservation in 17 children (70.8%). The scores of categories of auditory performance, infant-toddler meaningful auditory integration scale/meaningful auditory integration scale, speech intelligibility rating, and meaningful use of speech scalewere higher in children with better residual hearing. The residual hearing level was significantly associated with the performance of meaningful use of speech scale (P = .004), as well as the performance of speech intelligibility rating (P = .049). CONCLUSION: The present study showed that children with better residual hearing exhibited advantages in the early auditory and speech outcomes. The study highlighted the effects of residual hearing on early auditory performance and speech intelligibility development in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants.