LONGITUDINAL CHANGES IN WORD RECOGNITION BY PATIENTS WHO USE THE INERAID COCHLEAR IMPLANT

The time coursr for reacquisition of spondee word recognition was examined for 27 patients who use the Ineraid cochlear implant. At 1 month postfitting, test scores range from 0 to 84% correct. The median score was 10% correct. At 22 to 28 months plstifitting, the scores ranged from 0 to 100% correct. The median score was 56% correct. The rate improvement in spondee recognition varied greatly within the sample. Most patients continued to extract new information from the electrically evoked representation of the speech signal over a period of a year or more.