Investigation of general developmental profile, social-emotional adaptation skills and receiver language skills of children with cochlear implant in early and late term

In pediatric cochlear implant (CI) application, it is known that age is one of the most important factors affecting language development and age of CI application also affects cognitive and motor development. Therefore, it is thought that late pediatric CI users may experience delays in their developmental performance. For this purpose; CI users are divided into two groups according to the age of implantation: Early (≤24 months) and late (> 24 months). The age of cochlear implant application and the time of diagnosis of hearing loss, the duration of cochlear implant use, the duration of hearing aid use prior to the cochlear implant and the total training time variables; on children's developmental levels, receptive language and social adaptation skillseffect was investigated. To work; 31 children who underwent CI surgery by the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of Gaziantep University were included in this study. Ankara Developmental Screening Inventory (ADSI), Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and Marmara Scale of Social and Emotional Adaptation (MSSEA) were used after completing the General Information Form, which contains information about the child and the family of the child. As a result of the study, a significant difference was found between ADSI, PPVT and MSSEA scores of children in two groups (p <0.05). In addition; AGTE, PRKT and MASDU scores of children were correlated with the time of diagnosis of hearing loss, age of CI application, duration of CI use and duration of education. As a result; the time of diagnosis of hearing loss, age of CI application, duration of CI use and training period; it has a significant effect on the general development level of the child, language skills and social-emotional adjustment level. Therefore, CI applications made at an early age enable children to be more successful in their performances. Key Words: Language development, Developmental assessment, Hearing loss, Cochlear implant, Social-emotional adjustment