Parent Perceptions of Audiology and Speech–Language Services and Support for Young Children With Cochlear Implants

Abstract

Parents of young children diagnosed with severe-profound sensorineural hearing loss are selecting cochlear implants at an increasing rate. Audiologists and speech–language pathologists are typically involved in habilitation activities following implantation. These clinicians depend upon parents to participate in habilitation activities. However, little information exists regarding parents’ perspectives on the services and supports audiologists and speech–language pathologists provide. The purpose of this study was to investigate parents’ postimplantation perceptions about the importance of different services provided and to measure their satisfaction with the support provided to them. Results revealed that parents were overwhelmingly positive about audiologists’ and speech–language pathologists’ services and support, but preferred services that directly benefited the child over those that supported the parent. Parents favored a family-centered approach in services but indicated that the greatest overall positive difference in services and support was for their child, followed by the positive difference for themselves, and then for other family members. We end by discussing the policy implications of our results.

Quantity and Quality of Parental Utterances and Responses to Children With Hearing Loss Prior to Cochlear Implant

“…Remarkably, even though language development was rated as a major concern for parents of children with CIs during both preimplantation and postimplantation periods (Incesulu, Vural, & Erkam, 2003), parents are not typically provided with evidence-based strategies for communicating with their child and facilitating their child's language development during the preimplantation period (Kelly, 2013). There are abundant investigations on children's language development following CIs, but very little is known about early language development and parent-child interactions during the period prior to implantation.…”

“…In addition, professionals may want to share findings and implications from our study with families with children with HL. Quite strikingly, parents of children with HL are not typically provided with empirically based strategies for communicating with their child and facilitating their child's language development during the preimplantation period (Kelly, 2013). It is important that professionals encourage and coach parents to not simply focus on the amount of input provided to children with HL but also to provide high-quality input that includes rich semantic content.…”

“…The implementation of early identification and advances in hearing technology, particularly the CI, has been vital in providing early auditory access and facilitating spoken language learning for children with HL (Nicholas & Geers, 2007;Yoshinaga-Itano, 2004). However, the time lag between identification of HL and the age at which a child receives a CI is often at least 6 months but frequently much longer (Cole & Flexer, 2011;Kelly, 2013). This lag, during which children do not have sufficient access to auditory input, often occurs during the period of prelinguistic communication development (Sharma, Dorman, & Spahr, 2002).…”

Reliability and validity assessment of a survey: Measuring satisfaction with cochlear implant rehabilitation services for children in Jordan

“…To enhance the quality of care, pediatric studies have focused on assessing the effectiveness of the healthcare system by examining parental attitudes [ 5 ]. Since parents and their children are the primary recipients of healthcare services, measuring parental satisfaction serves as a crucial indicator of performance and outcomes, forming an integral part of quality assessment for these services [ 6 ].…”

“…With the advancements in cochlear implants (CIs), the majority of the literature on parental satisfaction with healthcare services and their outcomes for children with significant HL has been narrowed to this technology [ 5 , 19 ]. A CI is a medical treatment option that enhances the treatment and prognosis of children with severe to profound sensorineural HL.…”