Cochlear implant outcomes in children with motor developmental delay.
Multiple handicapped children and children with syndromes and conditions resulting additional disabilities such as cerebral palsy, global developmental delay and autistic spectrum disorder, are now not routinely precluded from receiving a cochlear implant. The primary focus of this study was to determine the effect of cochlear implants on the speech perception and intelligibility of deaf children with and without motor development delay. In a cohort study, we compared cochlear implant outcomes in two groups of deaf children with or without motor developmental delay (MDD). Among 262 children with pre-lingual profound hearing loss, 28 (10%) had a motor delay based on Gross Motor Function Classification (GMFC). Children with severe motor delays (classification scale levels 4 and 5) and cognitive delays were excluded. All children completed the Categories of Auditory Perception Scales (CAP) and Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR) prior to surgery and 24 months after the device was activated. The mean age for the study population was 4.09 ± 1.86 years. In all 262 patients the mean CAP score after surgery (5.38 ± 0.043) had a marked difference in comparison with the mean score before surgery (0.482 ± 0.018) (P=0.001). The mean CAP score after surgery for MDD children was 5.03, and was 5.77 for normal motor development children (NMD). The mean SIR score after surgery for MDD children was 2.53, and was 2.66 for NMD children. The final results of CAP and SIR did not have significant difference between NMD children versus MDD children (P>0.05). Regarding to the result, we concluded that children with hearing loss and concomitant MDD as an additional disabilities can benefit from cochlear implantation similar to those of NMD.