Προγνωστικοί παράγοντες γλωσσικής ανάπτυξης παιδιών με κοχλιακό εμφύτευμα

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of children who receive a Cochlear Implant (CI) is to develop speech production skills at the same level with their hearing peers. From 2011 almost 80.000 infants received a CI for their hearing loss. Recent data revealed that children who received a CI before two years of age and their pure tone average (PTA) is more than 65 dB before implantation and no other difficulties, will have the best prospects for developing normal language development. It is important to reveal the prognostic factors associating with language subsystems and then providing early habilitation.

Aim: The aim of the current literature review is to unravel factors associating with the language system of these children and to classify them, so be able to update the clinical practices of Speech Pathology.

Results: Recent data evaluated a plethora of prognostic factors examining their role into language development of young CIs. Among them the gender, chronological age, etiology of deafness, age at implantation, family’s dominant language, family’s socio-economic background, operation factors, school inclusion criteria and family’s feedback. Each factor is associated with a specific language subsystem.

Discussion: It is crucial for clinical practices of Speech Pathology to examine the role of each parameter to language development.