Ten-Year Follow-Up of a Consecutive Series of Children With Multichannel Cochlear Implants

Abstract

This long-term report shows that many profoundly hearing-impaired children using cochlear implants can develop functional levels of speech perception and production, attain age-appropriate oral language, develop competency level in a language other than their primary language, and achieve satisfactory academic performance.

Education and training of young people who grew up with cochlear implants

“…The remaining group comprised four college students, three university students, three actively employed and one (stay-at-home) parent. Another study on speech and language achievements, academic and occupational status of adolescents and young adults using CI for more than 10 years [12] found similar results and concluded, that the young people show satisfactory academic performance. As in [11] information on professional education and career progression was not available.…”

“…As in [11] information on professional education and career progression was not available. The studies [9][10][11][12] are retrospective and do not include control groups.…”

Functional outcome of sequential bilateral cochlear implantation in young children: 36 months postoperative results

“…Uziel et al [31] also reported 10-year speech intelligibility outcomes (SIR), communication mode and academic/occupational status of 79 unilaterally implanted children (implanted between 1.9 and 14 years of age). After 10 years of implant experience, 40% of the children developed speech intelligible to the average listener (SIR 5) and 27% developed speech intelligible to a listener with some experience of deaf person's speech (SIR 4).…”

“…However, our bilaterally implanted children obtained comparable results after only 4-11 years of unilateral and 3 years of bilateral implant use. Moreover, most of our bilaterally implanted children were congenitally deaf while most of the unilaterally implanted children in the Beadle et al [30] and Uziel et al [31] study were postlingually deaf.…”

Looking beyond discussions of medical and social models: A critical qualitative examination of deaf health disparities

“…The recipient's knowledge and understanding of CIs, their communication needs and skills, psychological strengths and weaknesses, attitude towards implantation and availability of a support network is also assessed before implantation (Paul & Whitelaw). A team of allied and medical professionals are involved throughout the implantation and (re)habilitation of CI recipients (Paul & Whitelaw. It is important to note that CIs also do not restore hearing to that of a hearing person and may not be an ideal solution for everyone, with research indicating some people, in fact, turn off their cochlear implant and do not use them (Paul & Whitelaw;Rose, Vernon, & Pool, 1996;Uziel et al, 2007) The cost of a CI varies from country to country and between devices. To give an idea of the cost of a CI device, in 2005 the cost of a Nucleus® Freedom™ CI system was $25,070AUD (Access Economics, 2006).…”