What does a successful cochlear implant journey look like? The Ida Institute set out to answer this question with our latest seminar, “Successes, Gaps and Challenges in CI Rehabilitation: The CI Journey for Children and their Families.”
Twenty-one participants from 14 different countries attended the two-day conference in Skodsborg, Denmark, at the end of April. The multi-disciplinary group included audiologists, teachers of the deaf, surgeons, and a psychologist, all working together to imagine how, as a team, children with cochlear implants and their families can smoothly navigate the journey from diagnosis, through implantation, and into rehabilitation.
Our faculty members Sue Archbold, Ruth Bourne, Lone Percy-Smith, and Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, each gave presentations about treatment and rehabilitation programs for cochlear implant patients in the UK, South Africa, Denmark, and the United States respectively.
Parent perspectives were incorporated through three ethnographic videos, shot by Ida Senior Anthropologist Hans Henrik Philipsen. The videos followed three families in the UK and South Africa, and discussed the challenges each child faced – in terms of development as well as resources – as well as celebrated their successes, while asking the parents where they needed support in the course of their children’s diagnoses, surgeries, and rehabilitations. This led to a discussion among participants about how audiologist can deliver the news of a child’s hearing loss to the parents with sensitivity, and help the parents manage their emotions and accept their children’s diagnoses.
Participants teamed up for group exercises, focusing on either support, teamwork, or lifelong journey as a theme. Within their groups, they mapped out their dream cochlear implant journeys, taking into account the needs of the families they will be working with. We’re looking forward to sharing these ideas with you in greater detail soon!