Current Status of the Speech-Language and Cognitive-Neuropsychological Ability of Deaf Children Wearing Cochlear Implants

Early Adjustment of Speech-Language Learning Condition and the Need for Education by Speech Therapists Specialized in the Field of Hearing-Impairment

Abstract

We investigated the speech-language and cognitive-neuropsychological ability of 17 congenitally deaf children wearing cochlear implants and who underwent habilitation for an average of 7 years 8 months by clinical-audiologists using the auditory-oral method at 3 years, 6 years, and 9 years of age.
1. Their achievement levels varied and there were individual differences. One caught up to normal children by 3 years of age, the an other had severe retardation at 9 years of age.
2. We investigated the factors related to the individual differences, especially the developmental retardation, by using the checklists of Mori, and obtained the following results: older age at the time of cochlear implantation, shorter habilitation period before entrance into primary school, parental problems (e. g., difficult with home training), and in relation for these, poor systematic, continuous and gradual speech-language habilitation, and lack of attention, the retardation of Performance Intelligence Quotient.
3. It was suggested that we should intensively educate Japanese speech-therapists to become specialists in the habilitation of hearing-impaired children.