Developmental outcomes of deaf preschool-aged children with cochlear implants

In research on the psychological development of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children, there is a wealth of studies focused on aspects such as speech and language, communication, and social-emotional development, but some other spheres have been disregarded. This study looks more generally at the developmental outcomes of DHH children who use cochlear implants (CIs). The participants were one group of DHH children 3 and 4 years old who used a CI and another age-matched control group with normal hearing and typical development (the TD group). The Psychomotor Development Evaluation Cards were used to evaluate the groups. Additionally, information about deafness, the CI, and health of the child and mother was obtained from medical records. For 3-year-olds, DHH children had lower scores than TD children in motor development, communication and speech, behavioural development, and knowledge and learning. However, 4-year-old DHH children had lower scores than TD children only in the social-emotional domain. In the 4-year-olds, positive correlations were also found between speech and communication development and knowledge and learning. Our results show that it is essential to offer early holistic support to DHH children who use a CI in terms of their global development, including social-emotional development.