Adaptation of the Cochlear Implant Quality of Life-35 Profile Into German.

PURPOSE: The adaptation of existing questionnaires is a valuable method to make instruments available in multiple languages. It is necessary to assure the quality of an adaptation by following adaptation guidelines. The Cochlear Implant Quality of Life-35 Profile (CIQOL-35 Profile) was developed and validated to measure the functional abilities in English-speaking adult CI users but is not yet available in German. In this study, we performed a cross-cultural adaptation of this instrument to make it applicable in research and rehabilitation with German-speaking patients. METHOD: This study followed established practice guidelines for translating and adapting hearing-related questionnaires. Professional translators and health care professionals with experience with patients with hearing loss translated all items forward and backward multiple times. A committee reviewed the process and decided when a satisfactory consensus was achieved. Next, we examined the intelligibility of the German version using cognitive interviews with 15 adult CI users. RESULTS: For most items, there was no difficulty with direct translation. In items that turned out to be more difficult to translate, it proved to be very helpful to compare the back translation to the original version, discuss the wording in the committee, and ask the source-language questionnaire developer. During the interviews, issues of comprehension for some phrases were identified. These phrases were changed according to the participant's questions and suggestions. CONCLUSIONS: The CIQOL-35 Profile was successfully adapted into German. The German version of the questionnaire is now available for research and clinical practice. Further validation of the German CIQOL-35 Profile is in progress. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25386571.

Effectiveness and costs of a low-threshold hearing screening programme (HörGeist) for individuals with intellectual disabilities: protocol for a screening study.

INTRODUCTION: Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) often suffer from hearing loss, in most cases undiagnosed or inappropriately treated. The implementation of a programme of systematic hearing screening, diagnostics, therapy initiation or allocation and long-term monitoring within the living environments of individuals with ID (nurseries, schools, workshops, homes), therefore, seems beneficial. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The study aims to assess the effectiveness and costs of a low-threshold screening programme for individuals with ID. Within this programme 1050 individuals with ID of all ages will undergo hearing screening and an immediate reference diagnosis in their living environment (outreach cohort). The recruitment of participants in the outreach group will take place within 158 institutions, for example, schools, kindergartens and places of living or work. If an individual fails the screening assessment, subsequent full audiometric diagnostics will follow and, if hearing loss is confirmed, initiation of therapy or referral to and monitoring of such therapy. A control cohort of 141 participants will receive an invitation from their health insurance provider via their family for the same procedure but within a clinic (clinical cohort). A second screening measurement will be performed with both cohorts 1 year later and the previous therapy outcome will be checked. It is hypothesised that this programme leads to a relevant reduction in the number of untreated or inadequately treated cases of hearing loss and strengthens the communication skills of the newly or better-treated individuals. Secondary outcomes include the age-dependent prevalence of hearing loss in individuals with ID, the costs associated with this programme, cost of illness before-and-after enrolment and modelling of the programme's cost-effectiveness compared with regular care. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has been approved by the Institutional Ethics Review Board of the Medical Association of Westphalia-Lippe and the University of Münster (No. 2020-843 f-S). Participants or guardians will provide written informed consent. Findings will be disseminated through presentations, peer-reviewed journals and conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: DRKS00024804.

Small number enumeration processes of deaf or hard-of-hearing students: A study using eye tracking and artificial intelligence.

Students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) often show significant difficulties in learning mathematics. Previous studies have reported that students who are DHH lag several years behind in their mathematical development compared to hearing students. As possible reasons, limited learning opportunities due to a lesser incidental exposure to numerical ideas, delays in language and speech development, and further idiosyncratic difficulties of students who are DHH are discussed; however, early mathematical skills and their role in mathematical difficulties of students who are DHH are not explored sufficiently. In this study, we investigate whether students who are DHH differ from hearing students in their ability to enumerate small sets (1-9)-an ability that is associated with mathematical difficulties and their emergence. Based on a study with N = 63 who are DHH and N = 164 hearing students from third to fifth grade attempting 36 tasks, we used eye tracking, the recording of students' eye movements, to qualitatively investigate student enumeration processes. To reduce the effort of qualitative analysis of around 8,000 student enumeration processes (227 students x 36 tasks), we used Artificial Intelligence, in particular, a clustering algorithm, to identify student enumeration processes from the heatmaps of student gaze distributions. Based on the clustering, we found that gaze distributions of students who are DHH and students with normal hearing differed significantly on a group level, indicating differences in enumeration processes, with students who are DHH using advantageous processes (e.g., enumeration "at a glance") more often than hearing students. The results indicate that students who are DHH do not lag behind in small number enumeration as compared to hearing students but, rather, appear to perform better than their hearing peers in small number enumeration processes, as well as when conceptual knowledge about the part-whole relationship is involved. Our study suggests that the mathematical difficulties of students who are DHH are not related to difficulties in the small number enumeration, which offers interesting perspectives for further research.