Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about Hearing Impairment among the parents of children posted for Cochlear Implantation.

INTRODUCTION

Audition is essential for communication, and it is vital for the normal cognitive development of children. Hence, if a child has a hearing impairment, it would significantly impact the child's speech and language development, competence, and emotional wellness. Most children with hearing impairment are advised to go for amplification devices or cochlear implantations for communication through oral modality. There are numerous factors upon which the rehabilitation programs' outcomes depend; one critical aspect that influences habilitation/rehabilitation is parents' knowledge regarding hearing impairment, their attitude towards it, and their practice. Therefore, it needed to assess the parental knowledge, attitude, and practice among parents of children with hearing impairment.

METHOD

The study used a cross-sectional study design and a convenient sampling method to recruit the participants. It was a timebound study; all the cases were recruited as participants during the study period.

RESULTS

The developed questionnaire has good reliability and validity. The questionnaire was administered to 38 parents to assess their knowledge, attitude, and practice towards their children's hearing impairment. The study's finding revealed that the overall parental knowledge, attitude, and practice towards their children's hearing impairment was found to be good.

CONCLUSION

The developed questionnaires in Hindi have good reliability and validity to assess parental knowledge, attitude, and practice about hearing impairment among parents of children with hearing impairment.