The comparison of balance performance among children with cochlear implantation, post-aural aid and normal children

This cross-sectional study was carried out to compare balance performance between children with cochlear implants and post-aural aid and normal children. The present study was done on 67 severe to profound hearing impaired children. Of these, 21 children with an average age of 7 years and 4 months (±1.7) wore cochlear implant, 46 children with an average age of 7 years and 7 months (±1.7) wore post-aural aid and 60 children with an average 8 years and one month (±11 months) were considered as a control group. All of the children were tested with the 9-stage balance subtest of Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency2 (BOT2). The mean total BOT2 score of hearing impaired children was significantly lower than the normal group (P≤0.001). The mean total BOT2 score among children with cochlear implant, post-aural aids and normal group showed that cochlear implant group significantly performed weaker than the other two groups (P≤0.001). Hearing impaired children particularly children with cochlear implant are exposed to the risk of balance deficit. Hearing impaired children specially those who wear cochlear implants must be screened for vestibular hypofunction.