Self-reported Hearing Quality of Life for Adolescent Cochlear Implant Recipients: A Longitudinal Study.

Background:  Clinicians are increasingly interested in self-reported hearing-specific quality of life (HQoL) for cochlear implant (CI) recipients, including pediatric CI recipients.

Purpose:  (1) To compare HQoL of adolescent CI recipients to those of peers with typical hearing (TH); (2) to examine, longitudinally, HQoL for a set of CI recipients; and (3) to determine the effects of child, demographic, audiological, speech perception, and language variables on adolescent HQoL.

Research Design:  Hearing Environments and Reflections on Quality of Life (HEARQL) questionnaires were completed by children with CIs at elementary (HEARQL-26) and adolescent (HEARQL-28) ages.

Effects of Segmental and Suprasegmental Speech Perception on Reading in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether suprasegmental speech perception contributes unique variance in predictions of reading decoding and comprehension for prelingually deaf children using two devices, at least one of which is a cochlear implant (CI).

Method: A total of 104, 5- to 9-year-old CI recipients completed tests of segmental perception (e.g.

Spectral Modulation Detection Performance and Speech Perception in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients.

Purpose: The aims of this study were, for pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients, (a) to determine the effect of age on their spectral modulation detection (SMD) ability and compare their age effect to that of their typically hearing (TH) peers; (b) to identify demographic, cognitive, and audiological factors associated with SMD ability; and (c) to determine the unique contribution of SMD ability to segmental and suprasegmental speech perception performance.

Method: A total of 104 pediatric CI recipients and 38 TH peers (ages 6-11 years) completed a test of SMD. CI recipients completed tests of segmental (e.

Assessing consonant production in children with cochlear implants.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the development of consonant inventory and accuracy in pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients and compare their performance to typical hearing (TH) children.

Methods: One hundred and twenty nine children with CIs, implanted between 6-38 months of age, and 30 age-matched children with TH participated in this study. Spontaneous speech samples were collected at 3.

Effects of Early Acoustic Hearing on Speech Perception and Language for Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients.

Purpose The overall goal of the current study was to identify an optimal level and duration of acoustic experience that facilitates language development for pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients-specifically, to determine whether there is an optimal duration of hearing aid (HA) use and unaided threshold levels that should be considered before proceeding to bilateral CIs. Method A total of 117 pediatric CI recipients (ages 5-9 years) were given speech perception and standardized tests of receptive vocabulary and language. The speech perception battery included tests of segmental perception (e.

Effects of Early Auditory Deprivation on Working Memory and Reasoning Abilities in Verbal and Visuospatial Domains for Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients.

Objectives: The overall goal of this study was to compare verbal and visuospatial working memory in children with normal hearing (NH) and with cochlear implants (CI). The main questions addressed by this study were (1) Does auditory deprivation result in global or domain-specific deficits in working memory in children with CIs compared with their NH age mates? (2) Does the potential for verbal recoding affect performance on measures of reasoning ability in children with CIs relative to their NH age mates? and (3) Is performance on verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks related to spoken receptive language level achieved by children with CIs?

Design: A total of 54 children ranging in age from 5 to 9 years participated; 25 children with CIs and 29 children with NH. Participants were tested on both simple and complex measures of verbal and visuospatial working memory.

Sensitivity of expressive linguistic domains to surgery age and audibility of speech in preschoolers with cochlear implants.

Objectives: To determine whether relative delays among domains exist in the conversational use of vocabulary, syntax, and morphology by children with cochlear implants (CIs) and whether these were differentially affected by age of implantation (AOI) and the audibility of speech.

Methods: Participants in this short-term longitudinal study were 126 children with AOI of 6-38 months and a matched group of 30 children without hearing loss. Language samples of the same children at ages 3.

Early Sign Language Exposure and Cochlear Implantation Benefits.

Background: Most children with hearing loss who receive cochlear implants (CI) learn spoken language, and parents must choose early on whether to use sign language to accompany speech at home. We address whether parents' use of sign language before and after CI positively influences auditory-only speech recognition, speech intelligibility, spoken language, and reading outcomes.

Methods: Three groups of children with CIs from a nationwide database who differed in the duration of early sign language exposure provided in their homes were compared in their progress through elementary grades.

Persistent Language Delay Versus Late Language Emergence in Children With Early Cochlear Implantation.

Purpose: The purpose of the present investigation is to differentiate children using cochlear implants (CIs) who did or did not achieve age-appropriate language scores by midelementary grades and to identify risk factors for persistent language delay following early cochlear implantation.

Materials And Method: Children receiving unilateral CIs at young ages (12-38 months) were tested longitudinally and classified with normal language emergence (n = 19), late language emergence (n = 22), or persistent language delay (n = 19) on the basis of their test scores at 4.5 and 10.

The effects of audibility and novel word learning ability on vocabulary level in children with cochlear implants.

Objectives: A novel word learning (NWL) paradigm was used to explore underlying phonological and cognitive mechanisms responsible for delayed vocabulary level in children with cochlear implants (CIs).

Methods: One hundred and one children using CIs, 6-12 years old, were tested along with 47 children with normal hearing (NH). Tests of NWL, receptive vocabulary, and speech perception at 2 loudness levels were administered to children with CIs.

Interdependence of linguistic and indexical speech perception skills in school-age children with early cochlear implantation.

Objectives: This study documented the ability of experienced pediatric cochlear implant (CI) users to perceive linguistic properties (what is said) and indexical attributes (emotional intent and talker identity) of speech, and examined the extent to which linguistic (LSP) and indexical (ISP) perception skills are related. Preimplant-aided hearing, age at implantation, speech processor technology, CI-aided thresholds, sequential bilateral cochlear implantation, and academic integration with hearing age-mates were examined for their possible relationships to both LSP and ISP skills.

Design: Sixty 9- to 12-year olds, first implanted at an early age (12 to 38 months), participated in a comprehensive test battery that included the following LSP skills: (1) recognition of monosyllabic words at loud and soft levels, (2) repetition of phonemes and suprasegmental features from nonwords, and (3) recognition of key words from sentences presented within a noise background, and the following ISP skills: (1) discrimination of across-gender and within-gender (female) talkers and (2) identification and discrimination of emotional content from spoken sentences.

Spoken language benefits of extending cochlear implant candidacy below 12 months of age.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that cochlear implantation surgery before 12 months of age yields better spoken language results than surgery between 12 and 18 months of age.

Study Design: Language testing administered to children at 4.5 years of age (± 2 mo).

Enduring advantages of early cochlear implantation for spoken language development.

Purpose: In this article, the authors sought to determine whether the precise age of implantation (AOI) remains an important predictor of spoken language outcomes in later childhood for those who received a cochlear implant (CI) between 12 and 38 months of age. Relative advantages of receiving a bilateral CI after age 4.5 years, better pre-CI-aided hearing, and longer CI experience were also examined.

A longitudinal study of speech perception skills and device characteristics of adolescent cochlear implant users.

Background: For pediatric cochlear implant (CI) users, CI processor technology, map characteristics, and fitting strategies are known to have a substantial impact on speech perception scores at young ages. It is unknown whether these benefits continue over time as these children reach adolescence.

Purpose: To document changes in CI technology, map characteristics, and speech perception scores in children between elementary grades and high school, and to describe relations between map characteristics and speech perception scores over time.

Factors contributing to speech perception scores in long-term pediatric cochlear implant users.

Objectives: The objectives of this report are to (1) describe the speech perception abilities of long-term pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients by comparing scores obtained at elementary school (CI-E, 8 to 9 yrs) with scores obtained at high school (CI-HS, 15 to 18 yrs); (2) evaluate speech perception abilities in demanding listening conditions (i.e., noise and lower intensity levels) at adolescence; and (3) examine the relation of speech perception scores to speech and language development over this longitudinal timeframe.

Epilogue: factors contributing to long-term outcomes of cochlear implantation in early childhood.

Objectives: This report focuses on how speech perception, speech production, language, and literacy performance in adolescence are influenced by a common set of predictor variables obtained during elementary school in a large group of teenagers using cochlear implants (CIs).

Design: Time-lag analyses incorporating seven common predictor variables associated with the elementary school test period were evaluated. The elementary school-age variables included five contributors across the performance domains: gender, performance intelligence quotient, family size, socioeconomic status, and duration of deafness (operationally defined as the time period between the age of implantation and the onset of deafness).

Psychosocial adjustment in adolescents who have used cochlear implants since preschool.

Objectives: This study examined psychosocial characteristics of students who had used a cochlear implant (CI) since preschool and were evaluated when they were in elementary grades and again in high school. The study had four goals: (1) to determine the extent to which psychosocial skills documented in elementary grades were maintained into high school; (2) to assess the extent to which long-term CI users identified with the Deaf community or the hearing world or both; (3) to examine the association between group identification and the student's sense of self-esteem, preferred communication mode, and spoken language skills; and (4) to describe the extracurricular world of the teenagers who were mainstreamed with hearing age-mates for most of their academic experience.

Design: As part of a larger study, 112 CI students (aged 15.

Measures of digit span and verbal rehearsal speed in deaf children after more than 10 years of cochlear implantation.

Objectives: Conventional assessments of outcomes in deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs) have focused primarily on endpoint or product measures of speech and language. Little attention has been devoted to understanding the basic underlying core neurocognitive factors involved in the development and processing of speech and language. In this study, we examined the development of factors related to the quality of phonological information in immediate verbal memory, including immediate memory capacity and verbal rehearsal speed, in a sample of deaf children after >10 yrs of CI use and assessed the correlations between these two process measures and a set of speech and language outcomes.

Language and verbal reasoning skills in adolescents with 10 or more years of cochlear implant experience.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to identify factors predictive of successful English language outcomes in adolescents who received a cochlear implant (CI) between 2 and 5 yrs of age.

Design: All 112 participants had been part of a previous study examining English language outcomes at the age of 8 and 9 yrs with CIs. The participants were given a battery of language and verbal reasoning tests in their preferred communication mode along with measures of working memory (digit span) and verbal rehearsal speed (sentence repetition duration).

Long-term outcomes of cochlear implantation in early childhood: sample characteristics and data collection methods.

Objectives: This article describes participants in a follow-up study of a nationwide sample of children who had used a cochlear implant (CI) since preschool. The children were originally tested when they were in early elementary grades, and results were published in a monograph supplement of Ear and Hearing. Recently, many of these children returned for follow-up testing when they were in high school with >10 yrs experience with a CI.