Cochlear implant plus hearing aid: measuring binaural benefit in children

Two children who wear a cochlear implant (CI) in one ear and a hearing aid (HA) in the other ear completed a test battery designed to measure speech perception in noise and localization abilities. The children had different lengths of device use for both the CI and the HA (S1 having more CI experience than S2). General trends indicate that the use of an HA in the non-CI ear may benefit localization of sound sources and may degrade ability to understand speech in noise. Due to individual variability on specific conditions, data on more children is necessary to derive conclusions regarding the binaural benefit of combining a CI with an HA. The current test battery may be a useful clinical tool for individual assessment in children. D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.