Assessing candidate children for cochlear implantation with the Nottingham Children's Implant Profile (NChIP): the first 200 children.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Nottingham Children's Implant Profile (NChIP) is a profile designed to assess candidate children for cochlear implantation. It includes the demographic details of the children (chronological age and duration of deafness), medical and radiological conditions, the outcomes of audiological assessments, language and speech abilities, multiple handicaps or disabilities, family structure and support, educational environment, the availability of support services, expectations of the family and deaf child, cognitive abilities, and learning style. The aim of the present study is to present the NChIP data obtained on the first 200 children implanted in the same cochlear implant programme and evaluate NChIP's use in the selection phase of cochlear implantation.

PATIENTS

The study assessed 200 profoundly deaf children. Fifty-six children (28%) were deafened by meningitis, 132 (66%) were born deaf, and 12 (6%) were deafened from other causes (head injury, viral infection, progressive deafness).

RESULTS

Chronological age at the time of assessment (before implantation) was the most common factor of major concern (9% of the children studied) and the pre-implant language and speech abilities of the children was the most common factor of mild to moderate concern, affecting 63% of the children. The second most common factor of mild to moderate concern was duration of deafness (37%) and the third was the learning style of the children (33%). Availability of support services was the least factor of concern as 179 children (90%) did not have any problems in this area.

CONCLUSIONS

Earlier identification of deafness (by universal neonatal hearing screening programs) may reduce age at implantation and duration of deafness as areas of concern in the future. However, the pre-implant language and speech abilities of the candidate children, the gap between chronological and language age, and the learning style of children are now emerging as key areas of research in the field. NChIP was found to be a very useful casework tool in the initial evaluation of the deaf children promoting and enhancing interdisciplinary teamwork across the different professionals. NChIP was also used as part of the decision-making process by the cochlear implant programme professionals and as a counselling tool for the parents. Finally, NChIP has helped to identify those children and families who need additional support. In the case of recently established paediatric cochlear implant programmes it would be a 'neutral' yet sensitive way of promoting good interdisciplinary collaboration and also peer support within team discussions when selecting children for cochlear implantation.