Performance of Hearing-Impaired Children with Hearing Aid and Cochlear Implant in Auditory Verbal Therapy

A Cochlear Implant (CI) is a surgically implanted device, which is a small but complex device that helps a severe-profoundly deaf individual to hear the sound. Inner ear is the innermost region in the human ear that consists of Cochlea, Balance system and the Auditory nerve; in which Cochlea is the most important part of the Inner ear. Once the sound reaches the inner ear, the cochlea transforms the sound waves into electrical impulses that are sent through the Auditory nerve to the brain. The cochlear implant restores the inner ear functions and the acoustic consciousness of pre and postlingually deaf individuals is increased. The hearing aid is an electronic device that comes in different styles that are worn behind the ear and few are worn inside the ear. The comparison is done with Behind the Ear (BTE) hearing aids. The scientific literature is reviewed on the performance of hearing impaired children with BTE hearing aids and CI. The performance is compared with the BTE hearing aids, as the children with severe-profound hearing loss are fitted with BTE hearing aids due to its wide dynamic range characteristic. The comparison is made for right ear, left ear and bilateral. 'Categories of Auditory Performance' (CAP) test was performed on a group of children wearing BTE hearing aids and CI as it is performed on both wearing BTE hearing aids and CI. The comparison was also made with high frequency sounds, level of understanding and with the duration of therapy attended. The available data show a great benefit with CI as compared to Hearing Aid from the results measured. The post-implant linguistic performance is critically affected by several variables. The full development of linguistic competence is allowed by CI and marked benefits in a wide range of psychological and social abilities is provided, whereas with Hearing Aid the children may have delayed language or the command on language may be imperfect.