RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of simultaneous and sequential bilateral cochlear implantation on deaf children's quality of life (QoL) and to investigate the impact of inter-implant time delay for the sequentially implanted children. METHODS: All completed questionnaires of the Brief Assessment of Parental Perception (BAPP), which had been routinely filled out by parents at annual review, were analysed for children with at least 12 months of bilateral implant experience. The responses for the simultaneous implanted group were compared to those who received sequential implants. Within the sequential group, the impact of shorter (<7 years) and longer (>7 years) inter-implant delays on QoL were compared. RESULTS: There were a total of 176 children in the sequential group and 97 in the simultaneous group. Results indicated that most children wore their devices regularly and significant improvements in QoL were reported for all children particularly in communication and learning. QoL scores were higher for the children with simultaneous implants, followed by children with a shorter time delay between implants. CONCLUSION: Both simultaneous and sequential bilateral cochlear implants significantly improved the functioning and QoL of deaf children.
Asunto(s)
Implantación Coclear , Implantes Cocleares , Sordera , Percepción del Habla , Niño , Sordera/cirugía , Humanos , Padres , Calidad de Vida , Estudios RetrospectivosRESUMEN
In the course of norm-referencing the Handwriting Speed Test (HST) for 8- to 18-year-olds in the Irish education system, the authors examined the issue of the duration of the handwriting test period, the relation of handwriting speed to socio-economic disadvantage and the comparative handwriting speed of left- and right-handed students. The literature reports some concerns about the generalizability of results from a short-duration handwriting speed test, some evidence that children from poorer backgrounds are less proficient at handwriting, and conflicting results on the relation of handedness to speed of handwriting. The results of this study suggest that the addition of a further 9-minute test to the 3-minute test of the HST would improve its ability to predict handwriting speed problems in everyday extended writing tasks, such as examinations, and would also identify some children who are wrongly classified as slow writers on the 3-minute test. The results also indicate a markedly lower-than-average handwriting speed for children attending designated disadvantaged schools. The results suggest that neither left- nor right-handed children have a consistent advantage in handwriting speed.