Peer Relationships of Children With Cochlear Implants

A recent issue of Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education examines Peer Relationships of Children With Cochlear Implants.

Psychological Status and Speech Perception Outcomes in Adolescent Cochlear Implant Users

A study conducted at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey found that:

The majority of adolescents, in this study, achieved varying degrees of open-set speech recognition and made greater gains than their previous auditory experience with hearing aids. Also, the indirect positive effects of early identification-amplification, communication therapy and counseling programs on their personal well-being is clearly observed from the outcomes of their state and trait anxiety scores. As a result of correlating the trait and state anxiety levels with pre- and post-implant speech perception skills, a significant negative correlation was expected. However, no statistical correlation was found between speech perception skills and the psychological outcomes. This result may be the indicator of the positive effect of the early habilitation-parental support and cochlear implant on the quality of life as the adolescents involved in this study were developmentally and audiologically ready for implantation.

Phonological Awareness, Vocabulary, and Word Reading in Children With Cochlear Implants

A recent issue of The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education includes an article on the phonological awareness, vocabulary and word reading abilities of cochlear implanted children.

The phonological awareness, vocabulary, and word reading abilities of 19 children with cochlear implants were assessed. Nine children had an implant early and 10 had an implant later. As a group, the children fitted early had better performance outcomes on PA, vocabulary, and reading compared to hearing benchmark groups.