Children who are deaf in one ear and have normal hearing in the other ear often have difficulty in school, hearing in noisy areas, knowing where sound is coming from, and communicating. Children who are five or older can receive a cochlear implant which can help, but they still have some difficulty. We think that implanting children who are deaf in one ear as early as we implant children who are deaf in two ears will help avoid these challenges. We also want to learn about how children are impacted by hearing loss in one ear and how much help early implantation provides.
Children who are under three will receive a cochlear implant. At each study visit we will test how well their auditory skills are developing. As they age, we will ask them to repeat words in quiet and noise. Their cochlear implant will be programmed at each visit. They will need to wear it whenever they are awake. We will also have two other groups (control groups). All of the children in these groups will be five years old. One group will have typical hearing in both ears and the other will have single-sided deafness and no cochlear implant. The children in this group will come for one full-day visit. They will have a standard hearing test and repeat words in quiet and sentences in noise. They will do a task that shows how well they can tell where sound is coming from. We will also test speech, language, cognition, executive function, and sensory processing. The children in the implant group will also do these tests once they turn five-years-old.
Control group participants will receive $200, Cochlear implant patients will receive their cochlear implant, surgery, and audiology care. All participants will receive reports of their results.
Requirements for healthy volunteers are different than for those with a specific condition. If you are interested in becoming a healthy volunteer for this study, use the below categories to determine if you are able to participate.
The Children's Cochlear Implant Center at UNC
5501 Fortunes Ridge Dr A, Durham, NC 27713, USA
UNC Health - Carolina Crossing
2226 Nelson Hwy, Chapel Hill, NC 27517, USA
Lisa Park
Otolaryngology (ENT)
Clinical or Medical
Interventional
Child and Teen Health
Developmental
Ear, Nose, and Throat
Healthy Volunteer or General Population
22-0862
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