Graeme Clark Collection
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 5 of 5
-
ItemIssues in long-term management of children with cochlear implants and tactile devices [Abstract]( 1994)For many children with severe and profound hearing losses, conventional hearing aids are unable to provide sufficient amplification to ensure good oral communication and/or in the case of very young children, development of speech and language. Traditionally a number of these children have opted for the use of sign language alone or in Total Communication approaches as a primary means of communication. The advent of multiple channel cochlear implants for children and the continuing development of multiple channel speech processing tactile devices provide auditory approaches to resolving communication difficulties for these children. The successful use of such devices depends on a number of factors including the information provided through the aid; the ease of use, convenience and reliability of the aid; the individual communication needs of the child; and the habilitation and management program used with the device. Long-term data has shown that children continue to show increased speech perception benefits from improvements in speech processing and from further experience with these devices. Habilitation and management programs must therefore be geared to meet the changing needs of children as they progress and of families as children mature and face new challenges. Habilitation must address specific individual needs in speech perception and in speech production. For very young children, benefits of improved speech perception should have an impact on the development of speech and language, and habilitation and management must emphasise the need for language growth.
-
ItemHabilitation issues in the management of children using the cochlear multiple-channel cochlear prosthesis(Wien, 1994)Since 1985, a significant proportion of patients seen in the Melbourne cochlear implant clinic have been children. The children represent a diverse population, with both congenital and acquired hearing-impairments, a wide-range of hearing levels pre-implant, and an age range from 2 years to 18 years. The habilitation programme developed for the overall group must be flexible enough to be tailored to the individual needs of each child, and to adapt to the changing needs of children as they progress. Long-term data shows that children are continuing to show improvements after 5-7 years of device use, particularly in their perception of open-set words and sentences. Habilitation programs must therefore be geared to the long-term needs of children and their families. Both speech perception and speech production need to be addressed in the specific content of the habilitation program for any individual child. In addition, for young children, the benefits of improved speech perception should have an impact on development of speech and language, and the focus of the programme for this age child will reflect this difference in emphasis. Specific materials and approaches will vary for very young children, school-age and teenage children. In addition, educational setting will have a bearing on the integration of listening and device use into the classroom environment.
-
ItemSpeech perception benefits for children using an advanced cochlear implant speech processing strategy in quiet and in noise [Abstract]( 1994)A new speech processing strategy (SPEAK) has been developed by the University of Melbourne and Cochlear Pty Ltd for use with the Nucleus 22-channel electrode array. In this strategy, 20 programmable filters are repetitively scanned at an average rate of 250Hz and the largest spectral components or maxima are selected from the incoming speech signal. This new speech processing strategy has been shown to provide significantly improved benefits in adult implant patients, particularly in the presence of background noise. This report presents data of a preliminary paediatric clinical trial of the new SPEAK speech processing strategy.
-
ItemSpeech perception benefits for children using the 22-channel Melbourne/cochlear hearing prosthesis [Abstract]( 1993)In 1985; the first child was implanted with the Cochlear 22-channel cochlear prosthesis at the University of Melbourne Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital Cochlear Implant Clinic. There are now 42 children who have received the device in Melbourne. Analysis of patient details for these children show a very heterogeneous group, with a wide range in age, hearing thresholds, duration of deafness and aetiology. The major aetiologies found were either a congenital profound deafness.; or a hearing loss due to meningitis. In all but 3 cases, the children are using 15 or more electrodes in the array. Speech perception benefits have been analyzed according to a six-level hierarchical classification scheme. All of-the children achieved a minimum benefit of discrimination of suprasegmental information (Category 2), and 59% of the children achieved open-set understanding of unfamiliar speech material without the aid of lip-reading (Categories 5 & 6). Detailed analysis suggests that the majority of children achieving open-set speech perception benefits had more than one year of experience with their implant. and less than seven years of profound deafness prior to implantation.
-
ItemFactors associated with open-set speech perception in children using the Cochlear multiple-channel prosthesis [Abstract]( 1993)Since 1985, nearly 100 children have received the 22-channel cochlear prosthesis from the Melbourne and Sydney cochlear implant clinics. These two clinics account for the bulk of casesin Australia, and have similar management philosophies and selection criteria. The patient population represents a variety of etiologies, and ranges in age from 2 - 18 years of age. Bothcongenital and postlinguistic hearing losses are included. In order to assess benefit to speech perception in such a diverse group, the children's results have been tabulated according to a six level hierarchical scale of speech perception achievement. The scale ranges from category I,detection of sound only, to category 6, which includes significant perception scores for open-setwords and sentences. Analysis of the results shows that the majority of the children are achieving open-set speech perception benefits, and that results continue to improve with additional experience with their devices. There are a number of contributing factors to these open-set speech� perception results which have impact both on selection issues and on habilitation with different age ranges �of patients.