Background and Objectives: The integration of auditory-visual speech information improves speech perception; however, if the auditory system input is disrupted due to hearing loss, auditory and visual inputs cannot be fully integrated. Additionally, temporal coincidence of auditory and visual input is a significantly important factor in integrating the input of these two senses. Time delayed acoustic pathway caused by the signal passing through digital signal processing. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of hearing loss and hearing aid digital delay circuit on sound-induced flash illusion. Subjects and Methods: A total of 13 adults with normal hearing, 13 with mild to moderate hearing loss, and 13 with moderate to severe hearing loss were enrolled in this study. Subsequently, the sound-induced flash illusion test was conducted, and the results were analyzed. Results: The results showed that hearing aid digital delay and hearing loss had no detrimental effect on sound-induced flash illusion.Conclusions: Transmission velocity and neural transduction rate of the auditory inputs decreased in patients with hearing loss. Hence, the integrating auditory and visual sensory cannot be combined completely. Although the transmission rate of the auditory sense input was approximately normal when the hearing aid was prescribed. Thus, it can be concluded that the processing delay in the hearing aid circuit is insufficient to disrupt the integration of auditory and visual information.

Background and Aim: Reading is not only a fundamental skill in learning but also an imp­ortant channel in dealing with the outside world. However, hearing impairment affects linguistic growth, including speaking and reading; deve­lopment of understanding; and academic achi­evement. The purpose of this study was to inv­estigate the effect of phonological awareness training on improving phonological reading and awareness in primary school children with hea­ring impairment. Methods: The present study has a quasi-experi­mental design. The research was conducted as pretest, intervention and posttest. A total of 20 children with moderate to severe hearing loss were enrolled in the experimental group and 20 subjects in another group as the control. Rea­ding and dyslexia test (NEMA) was used to ass­ess reading improvement and phonological awa­reness was assessed by the phonological aware­ness questionnaire. The data normality was che­cked by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and non-parametric Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U test were used to evaluate non-parametric data. Results: Based on the results, after teaching the phonological awareness strategies to the experi­mental group, their reading and phonological awareness scores increased significantly higher than the control group (p<0.05). Also the results show higher phonological awareness scores in girls. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that improvement of phonological awareness in children with hearing loss can improve and res­olve their reading performance and problems.

Introduction Pitch mismatch is one of the most important problems of users of bimodal cochlear implants, which affects their life satisfaction. Children with acquired hearing loss cannot explain their pitch mismatch problems, as they have had no auditory experience. This study tries to diagnose pitch mismatch in these children through the sound-induced flash illusion test. Materials and methods In this study, 20 children with a bimodal cochlear implant and 20 children with normal hearing, within the age range of 8 to 13 years old, were examined using the sound-induced flash illusion test. In this test, participants received one flash with one to four beep sounds, and they were asked to indicate the number of perceived flashes. Results The results revealed that in the bimodal implantation group, when the flash was provided with one beep, at certain frequencies, children expressed that they saw two flashes. However, the results were not the same in children with normal hearing. Conclusion The results indicated that at frequencies where the auditory information of the hearing aids and those of the cochlear implants overlap, pitch mismatch develops, which can significantly affect the auditory performance of bimodal users.

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