2.4 Assessment procedures
All participants were evaluated pre- and post CI with Ling’s sound test, the Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS), and Children’s Auditory Perception Skills Test (CIAT) subtests.10
MAIS is a survey reported by parents’ inventory and is used to evaluate functional listening skills in children with HL. It consists of ten items grouped into three main areas: implant use, awareness of sound, and sound recognition. Each item was rated by parents and scored from 0 to 4 (0 = never, 1 = rarely, 2 = occasionally, 3 = frequently, and 4 = always), with a total score ranging between zero and 40. All testing was initiated at 1-6 months post-CI activation, and at 1-3 yearly follow up intervals.
Functional auditory perception skills in daily life were used to evaluate children’s auditory perception skills. Besides, comprehensive test battery CIAT was applied that includes close-set Pattern Perception Test (PPT) and open-set Daily Turkish Sentence Recognition Test (SRT). In PPT, 12 words with different numbers of syllables (one, two, or three syllables and compound words) were randomly presented, twice for each word, in auditory-only conditions, asking the child to point to or name the appropriate picture matching the word. If the child scored 18/24 or above, the researchers proceeded to the open-set Daily Turkish SRT. This test contained ten sentences and attempted to assess children’s ability to recognize and comprehend speech. The children were told they would hear a series of simple questions, statements, and commands, which they might have heard in their daily lives.
Language skill was assessed using the Test of Early Language Development-Third Edition (TELD-3). This test thoroughly evaluates the children’s language development in the fields of semantics, syntax, and morphology.11