A Preliminary Study of Predictive Factors for Language and Cognitive Development after Cochlear Implant in Congenital Deaf Children

Shin, Min Sup; Kim, Soo Kyoung; Oh, Seung Ha; Lee, Hyo Jeong; Kim, Chong Sun

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The cognitive function of the cochlear implant (CI) candidates and psychological factors of their family may have influence on the rehabilitation after CI. However, only a few studies have been reported. The aim of the study was to examine the cognitive and language abilities of deaf children before CI. We also assessed educational opportunities that deaf children have been given, emotional problems of their parents, and investigated the relationship of these variables to the cognitive function of the deaf children.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
Sixteen deaf children from 5 to 7 years old and 100 parents having a deaf child participated in the study. The psychological test battery was administered to the deaf children to assess intelligence, attention and motor coordination. Questionnaires were given to the parents to get the medical and educational history of their child, the familial characteristics, parental attitude and emotional problems. RESULTS: Congenital deaf children showed high social adaptation abilities on Social Maturity Scale and borderline level intelligence in non-linguistic intelligence test. However, they showed low scores on visual attention task and significantly decreased visual-motor coordination on complex tasks. Seventeen parents (18.5%) met the criteria of depressive disorder by Beck Depressive Inventory. The parental stress and depressive mood were negatively correlated with the language and cognitive development of their child. CONCLUSION: The result of this study suggests that preoperative cognitive development of deaf children and emotional problem of their parents may affect on the development of language and cognitive abilities during the rehabilitation period after cochlear implantation.