Graeme Clark Collection

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    Factors affecting speech perception outcomes for older children using multichannel cochlear implants
    Dowell, Richard C. ; Dettman, Shani J. ; Hill, Katie ; Winton, Elizabeth ; Hollow, Rod ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 2002)
    Experience with cochlear implantation in early-deafened teenagers or young adults has been somewhat disappointing, however, in recent years a proportion of older children have demonstrated excellent speech perception performance. There appears to be a wide gap between the good and poor performers within this group. It is important to investigate the possible factors influencing performance so that adolescents and their families are able to make informed decisions regarding cochlear implant surgery. This study considered a number of factors in a group of 25 children implanted in Melbourne between the ages of 8 and 18 years. Each subject completed open set speech perception testing using BKB sentences before and after implantation and pre-operative language testing using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Data were collected regarding the type of hearing loss, age at implant, age at hearing aid fitting, audiometric details, and the pre-and postoperative communication mode. Multivariate analysis suggested that three factors have a significant predictive value for post-implant speech perception: pre-operative open-set sentence score, duration of profound hearing loss and equivalent language age. These three factors accounted for 66% of the variance in this group. The results of this study suggest that children who have useful pre-implant speech perception, and higher age-equivalent scores on language measures, would be expected to do well with a cochlear implant. A shorter duration of profound hearing loss is also advantageous. Mean speech perception scores for the older group were not significantly different from younger children.
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    What factors contribute to successful outcomes for children using cochlear implants
    Cowan, Robert C. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Dowell, Richard C. ; Dettman, Shani J ; Barker, Elizabeth ; Latus, Katie ; Hollow, Rod ; Blamey, Peter J. ( 2000)
    Long term speech perception data has been collected for 100 children using the Nucleus multichannel cochlear prosthesis in Melbourne. Scores on a number of different assessments are available at approximately six month intervals following implantation for these children. The group represents an unselected sample of cochlear implant users, as all children were included if they had sufficient developmental skills to perform formal speech perception tests. Information was also collected on each child regarding type of hearing loss, age of onset of profound hearing loss, duration of profound hearing loss, age at implantation, pre and post-implant communication mode, developmental delay, speech processing strategy and length of experience with implant use.
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    Latest results for adults & children using cochlear implants & future implications
    Cowan, Robert C. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Dowell, Richard C. ; Dettman, Shani J ; Barker, Elizabeth ; Latus, Katie ; Hollow, Rod ; Blamey, Peter J. ( 2000)
    The overall success of a cochlear implant procedure is most often quantified by assessing how well implantees can understand speech. This is because a primary aim of the application of cochlear implants is to improve communication, and it is relatively straightforward to obtain accurate measures of speech recognition. The quality of cochlear implant hearing is not well described by measuring an audiogram, as the detection of sound is similar across all implantees if the device is functioning correctly. A commonly used measure of speech understanding is the CID everyday sentence test where the number of correctly identified words within sentences is assessed. In the early days of cochlear implants, subjects could only recognize a few words without lipreading but the most recent results show average scores of 80% without lipreading for this sentence test, after 6 months of experience with the device.