Health-Related Quality of Life Instruments for Children With Cochlear Implants: Development of Child and Parent-Proxy Measures.
Michael F Hoffman, Ivette Cejas, Alexandra L Quittner
PMID 30059365WHAT IT FOUND
Researchers built a new tablet-based tool to ask children with cochlear implants and their parents about daily life struggles.
The test covers hearing in noise, fatigue, and school stress. It is not yet validated for clinical use, but aims to help therapists spot hidden social and emotional hurdles.
Key findings
01The new measure assesses domains like noisy environments, device management, and social functioning, using written, auditory, and pictorial formats to help children understand.
02Children and parents identified similar struggles, such as difficulty hearing in noisy places and fatigue, but parents often rated behavioral and social difficulties as more severe than the children did.
03The instruments are currently in the development phase and require large-scale psychometric validation before they can be used to evaluate interventions or outcomes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This was a measure development study, not a validation study. The instruments have not yet been tested for reliability or validity in a large sample. The sample was recruited from two specialized pediatric CI centers, which may not represent all clinical populations. Half of the child participants used primarily spoken language and were in mainstream classrooms, potentially under-representing children who use sign language or are in specialized settings. The study excluded children with severe developmental disabilities (e.g., severe cerebral palsy, autism) who could not complete the interviews, limiting generalizability to children with complex comorbidities.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). No other conflicts of interest were reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this tool is ready for clinical use. The instruments are drafts that have not undergone psychometric validation, so scores should not be used to make treatment decisions or track progress until further research confirms they measure what they claim to measure.