Background: Down syndrome (DS) is one of the commonest causes of developmental delay in children, with equilibrium problems being an integral part of the syndrome. This leads to further impairment of cognitive and concentration abilities. Material and methods:In our study, 30 DS children were categorized into 3 groups: bilateral normal middle ear pressure, bilateral abnormal middle ear pressure, and unilateral abnormal middle ear pressure. Sensory components of balance (somatosensory, visual, and vestibular) were assessed using computerized dynamic posturography.Results: Results showed a statistically significant decrease in composite score, visual ratio, and vestibular ratio among DS children compared to normal children. No significant differences in sensory parameters between the various DS groups (with various tympanogram types) were encountered.Conclusions: This might lead one to suspect central and proprioceptive causes behind balance problems in DS, but further extended studies are needed to confirm this. Bedside screening tests for visual and vestibular functioning of balance are recommended, e.g. past pointing and Fukuda for early detection and intervention.

Background: Hearing involves more than just the central auditory pathway’s operation and hearing threshold. Instead, the term ‘hearing’ encompasses a range of skills such as listening, comprehending, and communicating. As a result, a thorough assessment of the patient’s listening effort and working memory is critical. Methods: Forty-four subjects with cochlear implantation were included in the study, 22 patients as a study group and 22 subjects as a control group. They were assessed by digit span test for working memory, speech in noise test at different SNR levels, Fatigue assessment scale and Effort assessment scale. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the Spin test between the study and control group. The study group showed a significant higher Spin scores at all SNR levels. There was a significant difference in both digit span forward and digit span backward tests between both the study and control group with a significant negative correlation between digit span and listening effort and fatigue scales. There was a significant statistical difference in the mean results of both the listening fatigue assessment scale and listening effort assessment scale between the study and control group where the study group showed a significant higher result in both scales. Conclusion: Assessing the effort associated with recognising speech is very valuable. Scales for measuring listening effort and listening fatigue as well as working memory can be easily incorporated into the basic audiological evaluation providing valuable insights for further rehabilitation.

Introduction: Young children who experience severe-to-profound sensory-neural hearing loss (SNHL) face challenges in developing spoken language since they are unable to detect acoustic-phonetic cues which are essential for speech recognition. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the influence of age at implantation on children's language development to detect whether early intervention with cochlear implantation in children with severe to profound SNHL results in better linguistic outcomes. Subjects and Methods: 60 children from the cochlear implant unit from the Kasr El Ainy hospital were recruited to participate in this cross sectional study. They suffered from congenital bilateral severe to profound sensori-neural hearing loss since birth. They all had unilateral cochlear implant. Their ages ranged from 2-7 years old, 30 of them received cochlear implant prior to 5 years of age and the other 30 children received cochlear implant after 5 years of age. They all underwent formal language assessments. Results: Comparison between group I & group II in receptive, expressive and total language ages obtained by the Arabic Language Test with & without visual cues showed a significant difference between group I (early) and group II(late).