Comparison of non-verbal and verbal communication abilities between normal hearing children and deaf children 12 to 24 months after cochlear implantation

Introduction:It has been shown that cochlear implantation significantly improves verbal communication for deaf children. The aim of current study is to compare the verbal and nonverbal communication abilities of typically- developing children and deaf children, 12 to 24 months after cochlear implantation.Method: In this cross-sectional, descriptive analytical study, 78 children were recruited (14deaf children without cochlear implant (CI), 25 children with CI that their hearing ages were 12 to 24 months and 48 normal children aged 12 to 24 months). A reliable verbal and non-verbal questionnaire was completed by all parents and nonparametric method was used for data analyzing.Result: The result indicated that the non-verbal communication skills was similar in all groups (p> 0.05). However, verbal abilities in deaf children without CI were impaired comparing to children with CIand control group (p<0.05). There was no significance between verbal communication scores of children with CI and the verbal communication score of normal children (p> 0.05).Conclusion:It can be expected that deaf children who received CI late,will reach the verbal communication abilities of 12-24-month-old typically children, 12 to 24 months post implantation

Keywords:

non-verbal and verbal communication , deaf children , cochlear implantation , typically- developing children