Listening Difficulties of Children With Cochlear Implants in Mainstream Secondary Education

Abstract

Objectives: Previous research has shown that children with cochlear implants (CIs) encounter more communication difficulties than their normal-hearing (NH) peers in kindergarten and elementary schools. Yet, little is known about the potential listening difficulties that children with CIs may experience during secondary education. The aim of this study was to investigate the listening difficulties of children with a CI in mainstream secondary education and to compare these results to the difficulties of their NH peers and the difficulties observed by their teachers. Design: The Dutch version of the Listening Inventory for Education Revised (LIFE-R) was administered to 19 children (mean age = 13 years 9 months; SD = 9 months) who received a CI early in life, to their NH classmates (n = 239), and to their teachers (n = 18). All participants were enrolled in mainstream secondary education in Flanders (first to fourth grades). The Listening Inventory for Secondary Education consists of 15 typical listening situations as experienced by students (LIFEstudent) during class activities (LIFEclass) and during social activities at school (LIFEsocial). The teachers completed a separate version of the Listening Inventory for Secondary Education (LIFEteacher) and Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk. Results: Participants with CIs reported significantly more listening difficulties than their NH peers. A regression model estimated that 75% of the participants with CIs were at risk of experiencing listening difficulties. The chances of experiencing listening difficulties were significantly higher in participants with CIs for 7 out of 15 listening situations. The 3 listening situations that had the highest chance of resulting in listening difficulties were (1) listening during group work, (2) listening to multimedia, and (3) listening in large-sized classrooms. Results of the teacher’s questionnaires (LIFEteacher and Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk) did not show a similar significant difference in listening difficulties between participants with a CI and their NH peers. According to teachers, NH participants even obtained significantly lower scores for staying on task and for participation in class than participants with a CI. Conclusions: Although children with a CI seemingly fit in well in mainstream schools, they still experience significantly more listening difficulties than their NH peers. Low signal to noise ratios (SNRs), distortions of the speech signal (multimedia, reverberation), distance, lack of visual support, and directivity effects of the microphones were identified as difficulties for children with a CI in the classroom. As teachers may not always notice these listening difficulties, a list of practical recommendations was provided in this study, to raise awareness among teachers and to minimize the difficulties.

Core value of love and engagement of grade six competency-based curriculum learners at Wajir School for the Deaf, Wajir East Sub- County, Wajir County, Kenya

“…Todorov et al (2021) compared the observed and the self-reported engagement of 16 students who are Deaf or hardof-hearing (DHH) attending mainstream schools to that of matched controls with typical hearing. They express that when compared to their hearing peers in mainstream classrooms, students who are DHH experience more listening difficulties as cited by (Krijger et al, 2020). They echo that this challenge may have implications for their engagement in the classroom.…”

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rehabilitation services provided for cochlear implant recipients in Saudi Arabia

“…Therefore, individuals who use a CI understand less when listening to recorded speech than when hearing live speech [ 10 ]. This is all in addition to the loss of visual cues that are crucial for speech understanding, especially when listening without real-time captioning [ 11 ]. Individuals with hearing loss, even those with CI, still need visual cues and non-verbal information to fully understand speech, but these are often absent when communicating virtually [ 12 ].…”

Perspectives of D/HH-Students on Mainstream Higher Education: A Qualitative Study

“…As a consequence, many children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) can develop substantial receptive and expressive spoken language skills (e.g., Geers & Sedey, 2011;Moeller, 2000;Nicholas & Geers, 2006;Yoshinaga-Itano, 2003). Research has shown that early intervention positively effects children's auditory receptive abilities and their possibility to integrate into a mainstream school (Govaerts et al, 2002;Krijger, Coene, Govaerts, & Dhooge, 2020). In the Netherlands, like in most countries, there has been a shift toward the enrolment of children who are D/HH, into mainstream schools, rather than in segregated special schools or special classes (Stinson & Antia, 1999).…”

“…Furthermore, acoustic and auditory factors have been identified as problematic for children who are D/HH in mainstream primary and secondary education. Poor classroom acoustics negatively affects their performance and well-being (e.g., Crandell & Smaldino, 2000;Klatte, Hellbrück, Seidel, & Leistner, 2010) and the limited access to or disturbance of the auditory signal cause more listening difficulties for students with CI (Krijger et al, 2020).…”