According to the frequency of use of the implant device during the day in children using cochlear implants understanding speech assessment of skills

Auditory perception is vital in the development of children and it continues throughout life. It also forms the basis of communication skills. Auditory perception provides the recognition, interpretation and comprehension of sounds and speeches. This study was designed in order to analyse the improvement of auditory performance of patients with cochlear implants. The effects of the duration of daily use of the implant device on the patients' age, gender and auditory performance were investigated. Sixty patients with hearing loss in congenital and pre-lingual periods who had unilateral cochlear implantation before the age of 2 were included in the study. Patients who had received regular rehabilitation training at the age of 7, 8 and 9 were evaluated in terms of their auditory performance in this study. While carrying out the evaluations, the Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS), the Listening Progress Profile (LIP), and the Monosyllabic Trochee Polysyllabic Word Test (MTP) were benefited from. We categorized the duration of daily use of implant device under 3 groups as 0-7 hours, 8-16 hours and 17 hours and above. The results of the tests were evaluated with regard to the duration of daily use of the device, gender and age of the patients. A statistically significant difference was found between the duration of daily use of the device (0-7 hours, 8-16 hours and 17 hours and above) according to the scores of LIP, MAIS and MTP (p<0,05). It was seen that there was no statistically significant difference between the girls and boys according to the scores of LIP, MAIS and MTP in the evaluation in terms of gender (p>0,05). In our study, no statistically significant difference was found between the age groups (7 years old, 8 years old, 9 years old) according to the scores of LIP, MAIS and MTP (p>0,05). Consequently, it was determined that the skills of listening, recognizing sounds, combining sounds with comprehension, recognizing words, reacting to sounds, distinguishing sounds and identifying sounds increase the speaking scores when cochlear implant users use their implant devices more frequently during the day.