The relationship between the language development of children who use hearing aids and cochlear implants and their parents' personality characteristics

The objective of this thesis study is to examine the language development of children with hearing aids (HA)/cochlear implants (CI) and the personality characteristics of their parents. For this purpose, the Preschool Language Scale-5 (PLS-5) test was employed to evaluate the children's auditory perception (AP), receptive language (RL), and expressive language (EL) scores and to assess the personality characteristics of the parents. The Big Five-50 Personality Test (B5KT-50-Tr) was employed to assess the personality traits of the parents. The study included 40 children aged 0-7 years and 11 months, comprising 20 bilateral hearing aid users and 20 bilateral cochlear implant users, and 80 parents. The research findings indicated that the personality characteristics of mothers were associated with language development in children using bilateral hearing aids and cochlear implants, whereas the personality characteristics of fathers did not appear to influence this outcome. Additionally, the study revealed that variables such as age at diagnosis of hearing loss, age of device use, duration of rehabilitation training, and birth order among siblings had an impact on children's language development. Keywords: Hearing aid, cochlear implant, auditory perception, receptive language, expressive language, Preschool Language Scale-5, Preschool Language Scale-5/PLS 5, Big Five-50 Personality Test