Assessment of Auditory Working Memory and Attention in Children with Cochlear Implants

Abstract

Background: The most effective treatment method for children with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss is a cochlear implant. However, children with cochlear implants (CI) could might have poorer performance on working memory and attention tests when compared with their normal hearing (NH) peers. Since the socio-cultural background could influence the performance on cognitive tasks, it is imperative to assess cognitive aspects of children using cochlear implant in India. Aim: The study aimed to compare the working memory and attention performances of children with cochlear implants with that of normal hearing peers. Method: The study involved two groups (Group I included CI and Group II included NH children), each consisting of 25 participants in the age range of 8 to 15 years. Digit span forward, digit span backward and sound count test from CLAP-C for attention were performed on all the participants and the scores were compared between the two groups. Results: The results of Mann-Whitney U test revealed significant group differences in the digit span forward test, digit span backward test and attention test of sound count. Conclusion: Children with CI had poorer performance in working memory and attention tests when compared with the age-matched NH peers. Training is required to improve the cognitive abilities of children with CI.