BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study aims to identify whether the sequential bilateral cochlear implantation in children with a long inter-implant interval provides functional benefits in everyday situation. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Seventeen children with sequential bilateral cochlear implants (BiCIs) (mean age at first implantation, 2.6 years; mean age at second implantation, 8.5 years; mean inter-implant interval, 6.0 years) and 17 children with unilateral cochlear implants (UniCIs) were included in this study. The questionnaire SSQ (The Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of hearing scale for parents of children with impaired hearing, Galvin, 2007) was used to evaluate the performance of two groups by individually interviewing the parents of the subjects. For the BiCIs, anecdotal reports of the performance in everyday listening situation and device use were also collected in interviews. RESULTS: The BiCI group showed significantly better performance in all three areas (speech perception, spatial hearing, and other qualities of hearing) of the SSQ than did the UniCI group. The differences between the two groups were significantly larger in performance on 'spatial hearing' and 'other qualities of hearing' than on 'speech perception'. All subjects with bilateral cochlear implants had a positive attitude on bilateral hearing. Anecdotal reports indicated that bilateral hearing has positive effects such as reduced repeated questions, increased participation in conversation, facilitated language and learning acquisition, and improved concentration. CONCLUSION: Children who received sequential bilateral cochlear implantation with a long inter-implant interval could obtain functional benefits in daily life. Also it turned out that these benefits have positive effects on children's communication, language, learning, and socio-emotional areas.
Child* ; Cochlear Implantation* ; Cochlear Implants* ; Hearing ; Humans ; Learning ; Parents