Effects of cochlear implantation on auditory, language and speech skills of children with and without auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder

 Introduction: Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is a pattern of hearing loss characterized by preservation of outer hair cell function despite severe damage or absent brainstem auditory evoked responses. Management of children with ANSD is debatable. The purposes of the current study were to compare the effect of cochlear implantation on these developmental skills of children with and without ANSD and to investigate the age of cochlear implant reception on language (receptive and expressive) and speech skills of children. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional analytic study was conducted between eight cochlear implanted children with ANSD and eight match children with profound sensory-neural hearing loss (SNHL). Newsha developmental scale was used to evaluate three investigated skills. Results: Significant correlation was shown between the age of hearing loss diagnosis and the score levels in three developmental skills (p < 0.012). All children were lingered in the investigated skills compared to normal hearing children however, there was no significant difference between the cochlear implanted children with and without ANSD (p ≥ 0.636). Conclusion: The receptive language, expressive language and speech skills of children with ANSD and their matches were the same. It seems that cochlear implantation can be considered as an appropriate approach in the management of these children, especially at lower ages.