Otology-Cochlear Implant Centre, Department of Neuroscience, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Ear Hear. 2012 Nov-Dec;33(6):721-30. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0b013e31825b1a69.
Cochlear-implanted deaf children having additional disabilities may develop speech perception and language skills at a slower pace than their implanted peers without such disorders. Nevertheless, it has been shown that, even for these special cases, cochlear implantation (CI) provides benefits for a larger range of neuropsychological functions including social and relational skills. These benefits are frequently mentioned by parents, but rarely objectively measured by tests. This article presents a new evaluation tool aimed at assessing the global benefits offered by CI in these special cases.
The new tool has been designed as a closed-format questionnaire, divided into five areas. It is based on observing the frequency of preselected behaviors in daily activities, which imply specific social, neuropsychological, and perceptual skills. The questionnaire has been presented to the parents of 50 deaf children with additional disabilities, before and at least 6 months after CI.
The data show significant improvements in all investigated areas. However, not all skills improve in the same way, and only those skills related to language and communication correlate positively with time after implantation. The present article further discusses changes in skills for which parents have higher expectations, such as the preferred communication mode, speech intelligibility, and the ability to communicate on the telephone.
The questionnaire has a simple-to-use format, and it has been proven to be sufficiently sensitive for the detection of changes in each examined area. Because the questionnaire is based on observed behaviors, it can be used even when other existing tests involve tasks that are too complex for these children.
患有其他残疾的人工耳蜗植入聋儿可能比没有此类障碍的植入同龄人发展言语感知和语言技能的速度更慢。然而，已经表明，即使对于这些特殊情况，人工耳蜗植入 (CI) 也为包括社交和人际关系技能在内的更广泛的神经心理功能提供了益处。这些益处经常被家长提及，但很少通过测试客观衡量。本文介绍了一种新的评估工具，旨在评估 CI 在这些特殊情况下提供的整体益处。
新工具设计为封闭式问卷，分为五个部分。它基于观察日常生活中预选行为的频率，这些行为暗示了特定的社交、神经心理和感知技能。该问卷已提交给 50 名患有其他残疾的聋儿的家长，在植入前和植入后至少 6 个月进行。
数据显示所有调查领域均有显著改善。然而，并非所有技能都以相同的方式提高，只有与语言和交流相关的技能与植入后的时间呈正相关。本文进一步讨论了家长期望更高的技能变化，例如首选的沟通模式、言语可理解度和电话沟通能力。
该问卷格式简单易用，并且已经证明在检测每个检查区域的变化方面足够敏感。由于问卷基于观察到的行为，即使其他现有的测试涉及对这些儿童来说过于复杂的任务，也可以使用它。
