The Impact of Cochlear Implants on Cognitive, Behavioral and Social
Development
- by Cheryl Heppner
Editor: Here's another of Cheryl Heppner's wonderful reports from the
2003 SHHH convention. (Cheryl was one busy lady ;-) This is on a
workshop by Alexandra L. Quittner, Ph.D., which examined the impact of
cochlear implants on children.
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Dr. Quittner is a professor at the University of Florida in
Gainesville.
Some notes from her presentation at the tenth SHHH research symposium:
- Research shows that parents of children with hearing loss have many
unique challenges. These include the child's behavior, cognition (visual
attention, problem solving) and maternal stress (due to impulsivity,
distractibility, etc.) and depression. Parents of children with hearing
loss consistently report higher levels of stress.
- Parents who are more stressed tend to display more negative
interaction with their children.
- One study looked at stress and came up with a parent stress
indicator, enabling measurement of the stress.
- In comparing parent stress in preschoolers, the most stressful
things reported by parents of hearing children were: behavior problems
at home, sibling rivalry, toilet training, mealtimes, behavior away from
home, and bedtimes, in that order.
- By contrast the most stressful things reported by parents of deaf
children: behavior and language training, behavior problems at home,
communication, playing role of both mother and teacher, school
placement, and crossing the street, in that order.
- A look at maternal depression rates found a significantly higher
percentage of depression reported in mothers of children who have
hearing impairment. It was found that the stressors reported explained
the depression.
- A study of 39 children who were severely to profoundly deaf and 25
normal hearing children found that the behavior problems of the deaf
children were rated higher by both teachers and parents.
- Why do deaf children have deficits in visual selective attention?
The evidence suggests that seeing and hearing systems are coupled from
infancy. Studies show that from the beginning newborns look in the
direction of sound. Infants look longer at visual events whose temporal
rhythms match. There is deeper visual processing when sight and sound
happen together in their lives. Thus, sound has a key role in behavior.
- It was found that there was a developmental shift of visual
attention between 7-9 years of age. Results suggest that access to sound
contributes to the development of visual attention.
- A new study is being done of 180-240 deaf children under age two at
six cochlear implant centers across the U.S. Their development is being
measured pre-implant and post-implant. Researchers are looking at
language development, development of speech recognition, cognitive
development, and social and behavioral development.
- Recent studies were done to evaluate visual attention via tasks
with a computer game with children who use cochlear implants, and
children who use hearing aids (and using both oral and total
communication methods). The results indicated that those with the
cochlear implants performed better on visual attention tasks.
- A dissertation soon to be published shows how different deaf
children are in terms of attention.
- Studies continue to be done to attempt to see if a cochlear implant
will help eliminate or reduce some of the stressors reported by the
parents.
