More Than Hearing Loss

Publications

Summary

21 children with hearing loss due to congenital symptomatic cytomegalovirus were described. Children with neurological problems such as seizures, cerebral palsy, and intellectual disability were more likely to need special education services than those without significant neurological problems. Children with intellectual disabilities had more difficulties in communication skills.

Madden, C, Wiley, S, Schleiss, M, Benton, C, Meinzen-Derr, J, Greinwald, J, and Choo, D. Audiometric, Clinical and Educational Outcomes in a Pediatric Symptomatic Congenital Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Population with Sensorineural Hearing Loss. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. Volume 69 1191-1198. 2005.

 

Summary

This study reviewed the charts of children who received a cochlear implant and had a common genetic cause of hearing loss, GJB2 mutation or connexin mutation. Although other studies at the time indicated children with this cause of hearing loss traditionally do well with a cochlear implant, our study found 44% of these children to have a developmental problem which could impact their progress with the implant, such as specific learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, motor delays, and global developmental delays.

Wiley, S, Choo, D, Meinzen-Derr, J, Hilbert, L, Greinwald. GJB2 mutations and additional disabilities in a pediatric cochlear implant population. J. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. Volume 70 493-500. 2006.


Summary

A tool to measure caregiver stress for children specifically with hearing loss was developed and described in this paper. Families experienced different stressors as children were at different ages. Families experienced a lot of stress around appointments and insurance at the time of diagnosis and more difficulties with school programming once children were older. They were always noting concerns around communication skills for their children and interested in making sure their children could communicate with others across settings (medical, school, and community).

Meinzen-Derr, J, Lim, L, Choo, D, Wiley, S. Pediatric Hearing Impairment Caregiver Experience: Impact of Duration of Hearing Loss on Parental Stress. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. 72:1693-1703. 2008.


Summary

This work was started because although children with severe to profound hearing loss are receiving cochlear implants at high rates, the children with implants are different than all of the children who are eligible for cochlear implants. In the available data, there are some ethnic groups are under-represented as well as children with additional disabilities. This study tried to understand the characteristics of children who never were referred for a cochlear implant evaluation despite having the right type of hearing loss to suggest a child might benefit. We found that children from single parent homes were the least likely to be referred for this evaluation in our institution.

Wiley, S, Meinzen-Derr. Access to cochlear implant candidacy evaluations: who is not making it to the team evaluations?  J. International Journal of Audiology. Feb 48(2): 74-79. 2009.


Summary

This paper described 200 children with permanent hearing loss who received multi-disciplinary evaluations. A high rate of vision problems (53%) and additional disabilities (58%) were found. It did not matter if children had mild degrees of hearing loss, unilateral loss, or more severe degrees of hearing loss. These rates were high across the groups.

Wiley, S, Arjmand, E, Meinzen-Derr, J, Dixon, M. Findings from multidisciplinary evaluation of children with permanent hearing loss. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. (75) 1040-1044. 2011.