Language development in a hearing and a deaf twin with simultaneous bilateral cochlear implants

Categories of Auditory Performance and Speech Intelligibility Ratings in Prelingually Deaf Children With Bilateral Implantation

Purpose The aim of the current study was to review all pediatric cases with congenital deafness who underwent bilateral implantation in our center. Specifically, auditory performance and speech intelligibility ratings were compared across children based on their mode of bilateral stimulation (simultaneous or sequential implantation). Method A retrospective chart review design was used in this study. A total of 46 congenitally deaf children were included. Children ranged in age between 2 and 8 years, with a mean of 3 years 7 months. Participants were divided into 2 groups: those who received their bilateral implant simultaneously and those who received them sequentially. Categories of Auditory Performance (CAP; Archbold, Lutman, & Marshall, 1995 ) scores and Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR; M. C. Allen, Nikolopoulos, & O'Donoghue, 1998 ) scores were used to measure their performance. Results Children scored an average of 4.1 (±1.6) on the CAP Scale and 1.6 (±1) on the SIR Scale. Results showed that children who received their implants simultaneously scored relatively higher on the CAP Scale than those with sequential implants. However, there were no differences between the 2 groups in SIR scores. These 2 outcome measures were not correlated with age at implantation. Conclusion The current study demonstrated that simultaneous implantation could potentially improve audiologic outcome.

Clinical and logopaedic results of simultaneous and sequential bilateral implants in children with severe and/or profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss: A literature review

This article carries out a literature review of the advantages and limitations of the simultaneous bilateral cochlear implantation (SCI) compared to those of the sequential bilateral cochlear implantation (SBCI) and the unilateral cochlear implantation (UCI). The variables analysed in said comparison are: safety and surgical technique, SCI incidence, effectiveness, impact of the inter-implant interval, costs and financing, impact on brain plasticity, impact on speech and language development, main benefits, main disadvantages and concerns, and predictive factors of prognosis. Although the results are not conclusive, all variables analysed seem to point towards observable benefits of SCI in comparison with SBCI or UCI. This tendency should be studied in more depth in multicentre studies with higher methodological rigour, more comprehensive samples and periods and other determining variables (age at the time of implantation, duration and degree of the hearing loss, rehabilitation methodologies used, family involvement, etc.).

Twins' injuries: genetic and environmental risks / twin research reports / human interest stories

The relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to unintentional injuries are of interest to families with young twins. A recent study found that childhood injuries are explained mostly by child-specific environmental factors. Next, twin research reviews of the association between periodontal disease and cancer, secular trends in gestational age and birthweight, and language development in hearing and deaf co-twins are also summarized. Interesting reports of newborn twins, twin-like relationships, twin interactions and missed twin relationships are presented.