(WYTV) – A cochlear implant is an incredible device that allows someone deaf to hear, including children.
But with the young, there can sometimes be communications challenges.
To better understand how children with cochlear implants absorb information and learn new words, Ohio State University researcher Derek Houston designed a study.
The study watches how parents and their children with the implants interact as parents give their children toys.
Derek Houston says that it’s all about timing.
“The timing of when a parent says a label and what the child is doing, when the label is said, predicts whether or not the child will learn a word.”
The parents can then take what they’ve learned in this study to reinforce language skills in their children when they go home.
The researchers say this method of parent-child observation may help us learn more about the best ways to teach language skills to any child, even children with ADHD or autism.