Cochlear Implant Factors

FACTORS AFFECTING THE OUTCOMES IN CHILDREN WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANT – A STUDY

INTRODUCTION:

Cochlear implant is electronic device that contain a current source and an electrode array that is implanted into the cochlea. Electrical current is then used to stimulate the surviving auditory nerve fibers (Wilson, 2000). Cochlear implantation has been an most effect method of treating profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss for persons since the mid-1980s (House and Berliner, 1991). Although the original cochlear implants were single channel devices, there are now several advancement seen in terms of multichannel cochlear implant systems. When implantation of children was approved by the FDA it was limited to children 2 years of age and up;

Swami H1(2013) for this assessed hearing by, The Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) and speech perception was assessed by the Meaningful Use of Speech Scale (MUSS) as a parent reported scale in an interview format. Results indicated Children who had less than 40 months auditory deprivation and those who had higher educated parents had better auditory skills and speech perception. Earlier research done by Camille C Dunn, PhD1, Elizabeth A Walker, PhD1, University of Iowa indicated that the effect of age at implantation diminishes with time, particularly for higher-order skills such as language and reading. Some children who receive CIs after the age of 2 years have the capacity to approximate the language and reading skills of their earlier-implanted peers, suggesting that additional factors may moderate the influence of age at implantation on outcomes over time & Jayne Ramirez Inscoe; Christine Bones indicated in their study that additional difficulties are one of the factor affecting outcome in CI, in the distribution of additional difficulties within group of CI recipients with the same aetiology was examined, and trends were identified. Those deafened by cytomegalovirus or meningitis and those with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder were found to have the greatest number of co-existing additional difficulties including epilepsy and autism, while those with

Procedure: An open ended questionnaire was given to the parents of children with cochlear implant with the instruction to answer the questions.

Question items included medical history, age of identification of loss, age of h/a fitting, age of implant, usage duration of implant, hearing age of child, number of language exposure, age of therapy started at, age of schooling, type of schooling, parental education level, job status of parents, parental support, economical status of parents etc. Speech and language assessment of receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, language age was assessed using REELS (Receptive and expressive emergent language scale) & LPT (linguistic profile test).

Results & Discussion:

Mean average was calculated, of aspects like age of CI users, age of identification of hearing loss, age of hearing aid fitting, age of CI fitting, age of amplification to other ear, hearing age, languages spoken at home, therapy intake and regularity, age of schooling, education level & job status of parents was calculated in percentage (%) and mean of economical status was