Reading skills in Persian deaf children with cochlear implants and hearing aids.
OBJECTIVE
Reading skills are necessary for educational development in children. Many studies have shown that children with hearing loss often experience delays in reading. This study aimed to examine reading skills of Persian deaf children with cochlear implant and hearing aid and compare them with normal hearing counterparts.


METHODS
The sample consisted of 72 s and third grade Persian-speaking children aged 8-12 years. They were divided into three equal groups including 24 children with cochlear implant (CI), 24 children with hearing aid (HA), and 24 children with normal hearing (NH). Reading performance of participants was evaluated by the "Nama" reading test. "Nama" provides normative data for hearing and deaf children and consists of 10 subtests and the sum of the scores is regarded as reading performance score.


RESULTS
Results of ANOVA on reading test showed that NH children had significantly better reading performance than deaf children with CI and HA in both grades (P < 0.001). Post-hoc analysis, using Tukey test, indicated that there was no significant difference between HA and CI groups in terms of non-word reading, word reading, and word comprehension skills (respectively, P = 0.976, P = 0.988, P = 0.998).


CONCLUSIONS
Considering the findings, cochlear implantation is not significantly more effective than hearing aid for improvement of reading abilities. It is clear that even with considerable advances in hearing aid technology, many deaf children continue to find literacy a challenging struggle.
Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences & Health Services, Hamadan, Iran. Electronic address: m_r_st@yahoo.com.
Mohammad
M
Rezaei
Iranian Research Center on Aging, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Vahid
V
Rashedi
Qom University of Medical Sciences & Health Services, Qom, Iran; Center for Systems Studies, Hull University Business School, Hull University, Hull, UK.
Esmaeil Khedmati
EK
Morasae
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D032882:Comprehension; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading
Cochlear implant; Deaf; Hearing aid; Reading; Students