Abstract
We evaluated hearing aid benefit for five children who used a Nucleus 24 cochlear implant system unilaterally and who switched from the SPEAK to the ACE processing strategy. In the contralateral ear, the children wore a Bernafon AFl20 behind-the-ear hearing aid that was optimised with the cochlear implant. To evaluate hearing aid benefit, performance was assessed under four listening conditions: cochlear implants alone, programmed with the SPEAK strategy; cochlear implants programmed with the SPEAK strategy together with hearing aids in opposite ears; cochlear implants alone programmed with the ACE strategy; and cochlear implants programmed with the ACE strategy together with hearing aids in opposite ears. Performance measures included speech perception in noise, horizontal localization, and aural/oral functional performance in everyday life. On average, the children performed significantly better in all measures when wearing hearing aids with cochlear implants compared to wearing cochlear implants alone, irrespective of whether they were using the SPEAK or the ACE strategy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 123-132 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Australian and New Zealand Journal of Audiology |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2000 |
| Externally published | Yes |