| Popis: |
Cochlear implants (CIs) provide access to sound and the opportunity to communicate through spoken language for individuals who are deaf. Children who receive CIs most often have had little to no acoustic hearing; they have developed, learned, and communicated only via electrical auditory stimulation. In contrast, the majority of adults who receive CIs have had some access to acoustic hearing, either through normal hearing or through amplification via hearing aids. Our work investigates the development of language, cognition, and spatial hearing abilities in children who have bilateral CIs (BiCIs), many from an early age. The following will be discussed: (1) factors that may predict better and faster language development and cognition in children with CIs and (2) development of the ability to use cues for spatial hearing with degraded electrical signals. Our results thus far indicate that children with BiCIs are able to develop the ability to use spatial cues to aid in source segregation, particularly if they receive BiCIs at an early age. In addition, preliminary results reveal that maternal education and IQ may predict development of improved language scores over time for children with BiCIs. |
