Cochlear implants in children: Development in interaction with the social context

Between 150 and 200 deaf children are born in the Netherlands each year. Deafness has major consequences for these children’s development, as it deprives them of access to spoken language. Since the 1990s, deaf children have been able to have a cochlear implant (CI), which enables them to experience sound. The questions central to this thesis concern the way in which a CI affects children’s development, and the factors that play an important role in this. The framework for this thesis is provided by Bronfenbrenner’s social-ecological model, which proposes that children’s development is influenced by the quality and quantity of their interpersonal interactions. These interactions are influenced indirectly by the environment in which children live. In young children with a CI, language development and the social-emotional development are both delayed compared to their hearing peers. However, it is not yet cl ear how these children will develop in the future. The children who participated in this study were still very young, and a number of them received their CI relatively late. It is possible that they will catch up with hearing children when they are older and have had a longer period of access to spoken language