Children with cochlear implants: the communication journey.

Cochlear implantation is now a well-established procedure for profoundly deaf children providing access to speech through hearing for many of them. Much attention has focused on which communication mode to adopt with this group of children but very little work has looked at the choices that parents make before and after cochlear implantation. This study, following on from two earlier studies, looked in depth at the experiences of 12 families.

Long-term use of cochlear implant systems in paediatric recipients and factors contributing to non-use.

The aim of the present paper was to assess children's long-term use of their cochlear implant systems and to explore factors influencing the extent of daily use. The parents of 138 deaf children who had been implanted for seven years completed an annual questionnaire about the extent of their child's use of their implant system. The results revealed that seven years after implantation 115 children (83%) were wearing their implants full-time, 16 (12%) most of the time, three (2%) some of the time and four (3%) were non-users.

Speech production in deaf implanted children with additional disabilities and comparison with age-equivalent implanted children without such disorders.

Objective: To assess the long-term speech intelligibility in implanted children with additional disorders and compare them with age-equivalent implanted children without such disorders.

Patients: 175 profoundly deaf children 5 years following cochlear implantation; 67 children with additional difficulties and 108 children without such difficulties. All children were implanted under 5-year-old.

Children's communication mode five years after cochlear implantation: changes over time according to age at implant.

One hundred and seventy six children who had received cochlear implants at one centre in the UK were followed up for five years post-implant. The cohort was divided into three groups by age at implant. 1: Under three years of age; 2: Between three and five; 3: Over five.

Parents' views on changing communication after cochlear implantation.

We sent questionnaires to families of all 288 children who had received cochlear implants at one center in the United Kingdom at least 5 years previously. Thus, it was a large, unselected group. We received 142 replies and 119 indicated that the child and family had changed their communication approach following cochlear implantation.

Evaluation of the Parental Perspective instrument for pediatric cochlear implantation to arrive at a short version.

Objective: Evaluation of the well-known and widely used Parental Perspectives questionnaire (PP) by means of statistical analysis and exploring the possibility to develop a short version, as the instrument is often regarded as being rather lengthy with 74 questions.

Methods: One hundred and thirty parents of children participated in this study. To assess internal consistency among the PP items of the domains, Cronbach's alpha coefficients were calculated.

Does cause of deafness influence outcome after cochlear implantation in children?

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate long-term speech perception abilities of comparable groups of postmeningitic and congenitally deaf children after cochlear implantation.

Methods: This prospective longitudinal study comprised 46 postmeningitic deaf children and 83 congenitally deaf children with age at implantation of < or = 5.6 years.

Long-term functional outcomes and academic-occupational status in implanted children after 10 to 14 years of cochlear implant use.

Objectives: To assess a group of consecutively implanted children over 10 years after implantation with regard to implant device use and function, speech perception, and speech intelligibility outcomes; and to document current academic or occupational status.

Study Design: A prospective longitudinal study assessing device function, device use, speech perception, speech intelligibility, and academic/occupational status of implanted deaf children.

Setting: Pediatric tertiary referral center for cochlear implantation.

Young deaf children with hearing aids or cochlear implants: early assessment package for monitoring progress.

Background: Very few assessment measures exist for evaluating progress in young deaf children with hearing aids and cochlear implants.

Objective: To introduce and describe an early assessment package that covers auditory perception, communication/language development, and speech production in very young deaf children.

Main Outcome Measures: Seven of the assessment measures (Listening Progress Profile, Categories of Auditory Performance, Tait Video Analysis, Stories-Narratives Assessment Procedure, Profile of Actual Linguistic Skills, Speech Intelligibility Rating, and the Profile of Actual Speech Skills) have been specifically developed at the Nottingham Cochlear Implant Programme, and a further one (Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale) was modified for use within the package.

Parents and their cochlear implanted child: questionnaire development to assess parental views and experiences.

Objectives: To test the reliability of a validated closed-format questionnaire assessing parental views following cochlear implantation of their child.

Design: Parents were surveyed using a closed-format questionnaire developed in earlier work. The same parents were surveyed 1 month later and responses compared.

The educational settings of profoundly deaf children with cochlear implants compared with age-matched peers with hearing aids: implications for management.

The educational settings of 42 implanted profoundly deaf children 3 years after implantation were compared with the respective settings of 635 age-matched severely deaf and 511 profoundly deaf children with hearing aids. All implanted children received their implants before beginning school. The results revealed that 3 years after implantation.