Language profile of cochlear implanted children at Assiut University, Egypt.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Phoniatric Unit ,Otorhinolaryngology Department , Assuit University, Assuit, Egypt

2 Audiology unit, otorhinolaryngology Department, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

Abstract

                                                                              
Background: many factors either preoperative or postoperative affect the language outcome in cochlear implanted (CI) children especially the age of implantation, residual hearing, preoperative hearing aid wearing, and pre and postoperative language therapy.
Objective: to evaluate the impact of some related factors (gender, family  education, pre-implanted hearing aid wearing& language therapy, age at implantation, duration& place of post-operative language therapy, and total hearing age) on language outcomes in Assiut University hospital
Design: 45 CI children (23 girls and 22 boys) with ages ranging from 20-108 months were recruited from the Phoniatric Unit, Assiut University Hospital. They underwent; (1) Pre-therapy language assessment, (2) Language therapy for a period ranging from 6 months to 2 years in the Phoniatric Unit at Assuit University Hospital, some children received language therapy (outside our unit) in non-specialized centers (3) Post therapy language re-evaluation.
Results: better results were obtained from younger age of implantation, longer duration of post-implanted language therapy, good parents education, pre-implanted language therapy, longer duration of pre-implanted hearing aid wearing, children received language therapy in Phoniatric unit Assiut University Hospital and longer total hearing age.
Conclusion:  early age of implantation, longer duration of post-implanted therapy, and well-qualified place of therapy are recommended factors to improve post-CI language outcome in pre-lingual hearing-impaired children.    

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