The effect of intensive auditory training on auditory skills and on speech intelligibility of prelingual cochlear implanted adolescents and adults

The aim of the studyTo study the effect of intensive auditory training using the modified version of the Arabic rehabilitation program for adults on both the auditory skills and the degree of speech intelligibility.Materials and methodsThe study was conducted on 30 patients who were divided into two groups according to intensiveness of the auditory training. Each group included 15 patients (10 males and 5 females). Both groups received the usual therapy program provided for cochlear implanted patients. Group (I) received an additional therapy other than the usual form. Minimal Auditory Capabilities Test (MAC Test) was used to assess auditory perception abilities and Speech Intelligibility Rating Scale (SIR) was used to assess speech production skills before implantation and at 3, 6, 12, 18 months post-operatively.ResultsA significant difference was found when comparing the two groups in spondee discrimination during the post-operative assessment periods, of 3, 6, 12, and 18 months with P value <0.05.A highly significant difference was found for spondee recognition, sentence identification and high context sentence recognition at the 18 month assessment with P value <0.01. A significant mean difference with P value <0.05 for speech intelligibility scores at 18 months post implantation was found between the two groups.ConclusionThe effectiveness of the modified form of the Arabic Adult rehabilitation was revealed in this study. Using more intensive auditory rehabilitation may result in a better improvement in auditory abilities and speech intelligibility of the prelingually deafened adult cochlear implanted population.