[Artur SalmiyarovSurgut] I have a patient who has been deaf for 15 years. All this time, he has continued reading and writing. Amazingly, his speech did not fall apart although he did not use any aids. He has congenital problems with his spine, he cannot walk and so does not attend any lessons with SLPs. We are planning to give him a cochlear implant. Do you think he needs P300? Will this give us additional data about the functioning of his cerebral cortex?
This question should be answered by a clinical audiologist.
Normally, patients with post-lingual deafness have very good prospects if they have normal cognitive and neurological development.
[Irina-Tambov] Should tablets with letters or words be in continued long-term use with a CI-implanted child? What if this was a late implantation?
This depends on how well the child masters reading. As soon as the children have learnt the words, the cards are no longer necessary.
[Liuba_Osnabrück] How is early support and diagnostics [in Germany] carried out? How do they support the parents? I had my practice in the hearing center of a kindergrarten in Osnabruck. I am especially interested in work with children under the age of 3 before kindergarten.
By early support we mean the support of children aged under 3 years. In Germany this is tied mostly to a school for the hard of hearing. Specialists working in this field also support families in the home. Concepts of early support may differ from region to region. More detailed information could be found on web-pages of schools.
[Irina-Tambov] How is a CI-implanted child taught in Germany, given that his ability to master the curriculum is limited?
If a hearing-impaired child with limitations in speech acquisition goes to a normal school, he will need a lot of individual classes with a teacher who is qualified for this.
First of all the child must be taught various techniques in reading, writing and counting.
The need in individual lessons varies widely.
[Liudmila Zhuchko-Grodno] In Germany, which group do children after cochlear implantation go to in a pre-school institution?
In Germany children can go to development-oriented kindergartens for hearing and communication, integrated kindergartens or mainstream ones.
In integrated kindergartens SLPs are also present. Teachers and other staff in pre-school are supported and consulted by specialists from schools for the hard of hearing.
[Irina-Tambov] Not sure how come the clinic does not cooperate with the school? Each to their own? How are their functions separated?
Cooperation between the clinic and school is mandatory, but in Germany we observe the principle of the parental will. In some cases the parents do not want this cooperation.
[Liudmila Zhuchko-Grodno] Could implanted children who are behind the norm in speech development, be in the same kindergarten group as children who have speech pathology but normal hearing?
This is a possible option, but care must be taken depending on what group this is and what kind of speech pathology the other children have. Hearing-impaired children need, above all else, good speech and language samples to copy, as well as calm surroundings.