Effect of Cochlear Implant and Hearing Aid on Phonological Working Memory

  Hearing loss is associated with poor cognitive performance. Using hearing aids reduces the impact of hearing loss on cognitive problems. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cochlear implant and hearing aid on the children's phonological working memory ability. In the current cross- sectional study, 63 Persian-speaking primary grade students (21 cochlear implant, 21 hearing aids, and 21 children with normal hearing) participated. The assessment tools used were Nonword repetition task of Sayyahi and forward and backward auditory digit spans from the Persian version of WISC-IV. The results showed that the means of scores for children with normal hearing in phonological working memory were significantly greater than those of children with severe-to-profound hearing loss with cochlear implants and hearing aids user (P<0/01). Mean scores of different skills in phonological working memory were not significantly different between the two groups of cochlear implant and hearing aid children (P>0/05). According to the results, a significant difference exists between children with hearing impairment and normal hearing children in phonological working memory. This represents the role hearing sense plays in the development of phonological working memory. So, it seems that in the present study, the type and use of hearing aids) hearing aids and cochlear implant (had no effect on working memory skills