The aim was to examine school-age children using cochlear implants (CI) and their typically developing peers in terms of auditory short-term memory (ASTM), auditory working memory (AWM), visuospatial short-term memory, visuospatial working memory, spectral resolution and monosyllabic word recognition in noise.
Twenty-three CI users aged 7–10 with prelingual deafness and 23 typically developing (TD) peers participated. Twelve of the children with CIs were early-implanted (age at implantation ≤24 months). The groups were compared, correlations between cognitive and psychoacoustic skills were calculated separately for each group, and regression models predicting SMRT and speech recognition scores were built.
The AWM scores of the late-implanted group were significantly lower than both the early-implanted and TD groups. The ASTM scores of TD children were higher than both implanted groups. There was no difference in visuospatial memory. In pediatric CI recipients, AWM was positively associated with ASTM, SMRT and speech recognition in noise. AWM was a significant predictor of the SMRT score, and the SMRT score was a significant predictor of the speech recognition score under the 0 dB SNR condition.
Most children using CIs are at risk for clinically notable deficits in cognitive skills such as auditory working memory and auditory short-term memory. When assessing cognitive and psychoacoustic skills in clinical routine, it should be kept in mind that these may influence one another.
İşitmeAtölyesi