Sahar Shomeil Shushtari - Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran(TUMS), Iran and Musculoskeletal rehabilitation research center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Farzaneh Fatahi - Assistant Professor of Audiology, Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran (TUMS), Iran
Nematollah Rouhbakhsh - Assistant Professor of Audiology , Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran (TUMS), Iran.
Nader Saki - Associate Professor of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, hearing research center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Shohreh Jalaie - Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Department of physiothrapy, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran (TUMS), Iran.
Ehsan Negin - PhD candidate of Audiology, Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) , Tehran, Iran
Mojtaba Tavakoli - Audiologyst, PhD of Psychology, Musculoskeletal rehabilitation research center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Majid Karimi - PhD of businesses administration, audiologist, Khozestan cochlear implant center, Ahvaz, Iran

Background: In many cochlear implant users, even after some time following cochlear implantation and adequate central auditory stimulation, certain hearing processing capabilities remain unresolved. These difficulties for cochlear implant users have a very similar manifestation to the decoding sub-category of the buffalo model of auditory processing which has a direct role in accurate phoneme processing. The present study was designed to investigate phoneme processing abilities in cochlear implant users and to evaluate the efficacy of phonemic rehabilitations in this population.Methods: This was an interventional study with single subject design. Six prelingually deaf children aged between ۸ and ۱۱ years were recruited in the study. The performance of the cochlear implant users during three phases of baseline, intervention and follow-up was investigated. Phonemic Training and Phonemic Synthesis programs were administered and the outcomes were compared based on performance of the children in phoneme recognition test, phonemic synthesis test and the phoneme error analysis form.Results: All findings demonstrated that test scores improved in all six cases after intervention in comparison to the baseline (p< .۰۰).Conclusions: This study suggests that phoneme-based rehabilitation strategies improve the performance of deaf children with cochlear implants and should be used in postoperative therapy batteries.

Cochlear Implant, Phoneme recognition, Phonemic Synthesis, Phonemic Synthesis Program, Phonemic training Program