title: Cognitive skills and academic achievement of deaf children with cochlear implants.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare cognitive performance between children with cochlear implants (CI) and normal-hearing peers; provide information about correlations between cognitive performance, basic academic achievement, and medical/audiological and social background variables; and assess the predictor quality of these variables for cognition.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study with comparison group, diagnostic test assessment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected in the authors' clinic (children with CI) and in Austrian schools (normal-hearing children).
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty children with CI (of the initial 65 children eligible for this study), aged 7 to 11 years, and 40 normal-hearing children, matched by age and sex, were tested with (a) the Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT); (b) the Number Sequences subtest of the Heidelberger Rechentest 1-4 (HRT); (c) Comprehension, (d) Coding, (e) Digit Span, and (f) Vocabulary subtests of HAWIK III (German WISC III); (g) the Corsi Block Tapping Test; (h) the Arithmetic Operations subtests of the HRT; and (i) Salzburger Lese-Screening (SLS, reading). In addition, medical, audiological, social, and educational data from children with CI were collected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The children with CI equaled normal-hearing children in (a), (d), (e), (g), (h), and (i) and performed significantly worse in (b), (c) and (f). Background variables correlate significantly with cognitive skills and academic achievement. Medical/audiological variables explain 44.3% of the variance in CFT1 (CFIT, younger children). Social variables explain 55% of CFT1 and 24.5% of the Corsi test.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study augments the knowledge about cognitive skills and academic skills of children with CI. Cognitive performance is dependent on the early feasibility to hear and the social/educational background of the family.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Clinic, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria. M.Huber@salk.at
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kipman
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011788:Quality of Life; D013997:Time Factors