Parents' Perspectives on Cochlear Implantation Results for Deaf Children or Children with Hearing Loss in Saudi Arabia
Alkhatani, Dr. Bader . 2020
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to understand the quality of life of children from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with cochlear implants from the parental perspective in terms of communication abilities, social skills, academic achievement, well adjusted for future life, rehabilitation knowledge as well as stress due to hearing loss. Moreover, any possible association between characteristics of the implanted children and the factors of quality of life of children with cochlear implants was also evaluated. A quantitative approach using questionnaire was administered to selected 103 participants with children using cochlear implantation. The data collected from the respondents were subjected to statistical analyses, and frequency analyses were done to present the characteristics of the implanted children. The study population comprises of both Saudi and non-Saudi nationals with having difficulty in hearing as a disability. The results showed high levels of expectations with respect to communication abilities, social skills, academic achievement, well adjusted for future life and rehabilitation knowledge. The parents were observed to be highly stressed due to their children’s disability. The differences in the perceptions of the respondents towards quality of life factors were analyzed with the help of a one way Analysis of variance (ANOVA). Finally, the association of the characteristics of the implanted children on factors of quality of life was tested using Pearson’s correlation and linear regression analysis. There were significant differences between the expectations in terms of communication abilities, social skills, academic achievements, well adjusted for future life and rehabilitation knowledge based on the implantation age. A positive level of correlation was observed between some of the factors, such as academic achievement, communication skills, etc. The linear regression analysis showed that some of the characteristics of the implanted children significantly influenced social skills, academic achievement and rehabilitation knowledge. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study elaborating the relationship between the characteristics of children with cochlear implantation and quality of life in Saudi Arabia.
Keywords: Cochlear implantation, parental expectations, communication abilities, social skills, academic achievement, changes in future life
Abstract
Abstract
This research paper concerning the perceptions of Saudi Parents of children with deaf and hard of hearing
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