A comparison of parental expectations of deaf children with cochlear implants or hearing aids.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of cochlear implantation of deaf children on parental psychosocial expectations before and after intervention. Family stress theory formed the primary conceptual basis for this study. A cochlear implant was considered a new resource that was available for the family to consider in its adaptation to the stress associated with the diagnosis of deafness in their child. It was an exploratory secondary data research project that analyzed previously collected, but not aggregated data from an earlier study, conducted in 1996--1997, that used an extensive semi-structured interview of parents of 35 children. Twenty-five children received a cochlear implant and 10 used conventional hearing aids. This study hypothesized that parents of children with a cochlear implant would have generally higher psychosocial expectations for their children than would parents of children with hearing aids.;Nonparametric quantitative and qualitative analysis were performed. Hypotheses testing did not produce significance at the .05 level; however, in two areas (future educational performance and future significant relationships) marginal significance at the .10 level was found in predicted directions. Parents of children with cochlear implants had higher expectations for their children than did parents of children with hearing aids.;Recommendations for future research include study of the effects of technology on family stress, parental acceptance of the diagnosis and child, parental and child expectations for educational outcomes and career paths, communication modalities used by older children who received a cochlear implant in early childhood, and a longitudinal study of deaf children with cochlear implants.