Evaluation of the academic and social skills of children with cochlear implants at first, second and third grades in primary school

In our study, the social skills, academic competence and problem behaviors of children with cochlear implants in primary school first, second and third grade were compared with their normal peers and the relationships between social skills, academic competence, problem behaviors and language skills were investigated. For this purpose, 32 cochlear implanted (research group) and 160 healthy classmates (control group) were included. In this study, Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) Inventory Teacher version, standardized to Turkish by Sucuoğlu and Özokçu (2005), applied by teachers of children. Also, receptive and expressive language skills of cochlear implanted children assessed with TİFALDİ inventory. As a result of statistical analysis, significant differences were found in favor of the control group between the SSRS subscales of the study group and the control group. The study group was divided into two groups as early (before 2 years) and late (after 2 years) implants, and when SSRS subscale scores of 3 groups were statistically compared, the difference between the study group and the control group was found as late cochlear implant group. In the analysis of the correlation between TİFALDİ Receptive Language, Expressive Language subtests and SSRS subscales of the study group, a significant positive correlation was found between the scores of the Receptive Language Subtest and the Academic Competence subscale while a significant positive correlations were found between the scores of the Expression Language Subtests and Social Skills and Academic Competence Subscales. It was also found that the scores of SSRS subscales showed significant correlations among themselves.