Shadow of COVID-19 on the Education of Hearing-Impaired Children

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Academic Performance of Hearing Impaired Children Who Received Early Intervention

Aims: This study aims to assess the academic performance of children with hearing impairment who received early intervention in Lahore. Study Design: Cross sectional survey design was used. Place and Duration of Study: Data was collected from Special Institute/School; Hamza foundation academy Lahore, Pakistan for the duration of six months from March 2021 to September 2021. Methodology: 97 students with moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss children (aged in between 4 to 12), using hearing aids (HA’s) and cochlear implant (CI) were included by using purposive sampling technique. Hearing impaired children with other than sensorineural hearing loss and children who didn’t receive early intervention (hearing aids/implants or speech therapy) were excluded from this study. Results: It was found that 97 children with hearing impairment achieved significantly in their test score (80 to 99%) across English, Science, and Mathematics as compared to Urdu and Islamiyat (70 to 79%) after the implementation of intervention strategies. Conclusion: The study conclude that, while children with hearing impairment faced struggle in some areas of academics which includes listening and imitation in subjects like Urdu (structure of words) and Islamiyat (due to Arabic talafuz), their academic performance in Math, English, and Science is higher with overall achieved percentage between 80 to 99%.

Awareness of parents of hearing-impaired children about the importance of speech-language therapeutic interventions

Background: The importance of parental involvement of hearing-impaired children in their child's speech therapy cannot be denied. The current study aimed to determine parental awareness and involvement in the Speech-language therapeutic interventions of hearing-impaired children. Subjects and methods: This was a cross-sectional study design, and a purposive sampling technique was used. Data were collected from 45 parents (male=32, female=13) of hearing-impaired children whose children received speech therapy from special education centers and schools of Gujranwala. The duration of the study was nine months, from June 2019 to February 2020. A related questionnaire was developed with the literature, and expert opinions (Cronbach's α=0.894) were used to assess parental awareness and involvement in speech therapeutic interventions. Data entered and analyzed by SPSS version 23. Descriptive statistics were used to describe demographic variables (age, gender) of the participants. Frequency and percentage were used to access the awareness and involvement of the parents of hearing-impaired children. Results: Parental awareness survey showed that a total of 15 (33.3%) parents, both mother, and father, strongly agreed, and 24 (53.3%) agreed that speech therapy would be beneficial for their child. And results related to parents' involvement showed that 21 (46.7%) parents, both mother, and father, agreed, and 15 (33.3%) strongly agreed on their child's active involvement in speech therapy plans. Conclusions: The study concluded that most parents understand the importance of parental awareness and involvement in the therapeutic intervention of hearing-impaired children.

Parental compliance for speech therapy of their hearing-impaired children using cochlear implants

Background: Cochlear implant is a miraculous surgery to improve hearing in profound hearing-impaired children who derive no benefit from hearing aids and consequently present with speech and language disability. This study aims to explore the parental perspective regarding compliance to speech therapy and its potential benefit in hearing-impaired children with cochlear implantation. This will help understand parental concerns and plan recommendations for providing appropriate speech therapy sessions after cochlear implantation. Subjects and methods: This cross-sectional study using purposive sampling recruited 217 parents of hearing impaired cochlear implanted children of both genders, aged 1 to 15 years. Sample was collected from Audiology Department of Riphah International University, Combined Military Hospital, Bahria Town Hospital and Alam Audiology Clinic, Lahore, Pakistan over a period of 6 months. Basic demographic sheet and self-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. SPSS Version 22 was used for data analysis. Results: Results revealed that both parents of 120 (55.3%) male and 97 (44.7%) female cochlear implanted children entered the study. A poor compliance was noted with only 88(40.55%) parents got their children consulted with a speech therapist for post implant needs and of these only 75 (84.23%) received regular speech therapy. There was significant association of those who received hearing aid trial and consultation to speech therapist (p=0.01) and length of speech therapy with regular therapy sessions (p=0.03), speech language improvement with the thought that regular speech therapy was important (p=0.04) Conclusion: By and large parents are not very compliant to speech therapy needs of their implanted children with only 40.55% consulted speech language therapists and remaining remained indifferent. Of the 40.55% who consulted speech language therapists 84.23% followed speech therapy for their children. Study also revealed a significant relationship between regular speech therapy sessions and early speech and language development.

OP267 Evidence for Health Technology Assessment: The Capability Approach

IntroductionHealthcare services, such as cochlear implants and subsequent rehabilitation, aim to increase valuable activities and opportunities of those affected. Their impact may be inferred from the extent that they protect or restore capability, which reflects the real freedoms that people have to be or do things they have reason to value. Capability emerges from the dynamic interaction between available resources, individual, social, and environmental conversion factors, and functionings. This model sets the informational requirements of the capability approach.MethodsOn the basis of interviews with thirty-three hearing impaired children and thirty hearing peers, information on capability elements (values, resources, conversion factors, and functionings) was collected. Qualitative results were triangulated with standardized clinical audiological and psycholinguistic quantitative measures.ResultsHearing impaired children and their hearing peers concurred in terms of the doings and beings they valued, but differed in terms of conversion factors to realize capability. Parents of hearing impaired children played a more upfront role, hearing impairment predominated many areas of life, and communicating through hearing aids required more energy than was usually acknowledged by the people around them.ConclusionsThe capability approach offers opportunities not only to assess impact of technology on dimensions that are important to patients, but also to better understand the mechanisms that are involved in value generation.

Impact of Oral Health Educational Interventions on Oral Hygiene Status of Children with Hearing Loss: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Introduction. Oral health is considered as one of the essential components of the overall health of every individual. Maintaining oral health is a gradual process that requires commitment. Children who require special care such as hearing impairment experience difficulty in maintaining oral health primarily due to communication difficulties. This study is aimed at using different interventions to evaluate the improvement of oral hygiene in hearing impaired children. Materials and Methods. Fifty-nine children were recruited in this study that were allocated randomly into each group with twenty children as follows: group 1: pictorial, group 2: video, and group 3: control. Mean plaque and gingival scores were noted before and after the use of different interventions. Oral hygiene was categorized as “excellent,” “good,” and “fair.” Gingival health was categorized as “healthy,” “mild gingivitis,” and “moderate gingivitis.” Results. Thirty-four children (57.6%) were from 12-13 years of age bracket, and 25 (42.4%) belonged to 14-16 years of age. Regarding gender, there were 37 (62.7%) males and 22 (37.3%) females. About comparison of mean gingival and plaque scores before and after interventions in each group, a significant difference was found in group 1 ( p < 0.001 ) and group 2 ( p < 0.001 ), as compared to group 3 where the difference in scores was not significant ( p > 0.05 ). Conclusion. Maintaining oral health requires the compliance of individuals to perform different methods of preventive dentistry, such as tooth brushing and use of dental floss. The use of different oral hygiene educational interventions such as pictorial and video methods have been proven and useful for hearing impaired children in improving oral health.

MY CHILD’S DISABILITY AND ME”: IMPACT OF CHILD DISABILITY ON MATERNAL QUALITY OF LIFE AND COPING STRATEGY

The birth of differently-abled child brings huge impact on the life of parents. This condition results in adverse impact on quality of life of parents. The study examined the components of quality of life and coping strategies of mothers of children with visual impairment, hearing impairment, locomotor disability, and intellectual disability. This was a cross-sectional, ex-post facto research study. The statistical population included the mothers of differently abled children. 200 mothers of differently-abled children participated in the study. WHOQOL-BREF and Coping strategies scale was used for data collection. Findings revealed that the quality of life has statistically significant difference among the mothers of visually impaired, hearing-impaired children and mothers of locomotor disabled and intellectually disabled children. The mothers of visually impaired and hearing-impaired children use approach coping more than the mothers of intellectually disabled and locomotor disabled children. The avoidance coping is used more by mothers of locomotor disabled children followed by mothers of intellectually disabled children. Efficient social skill training programs should be provided to enhance their social network and quality of life. The professionals should also assess the needs, potential problems of mothers and integrate effective strategies with the treatment of their children.