Assessing school readiness in children with cochlear implants using an Arabic language-based test

The Jeddah Institute for Speech and Hearing- School Readiness Screening Test (JISH-SRST), an Arabic language-based test, was used to assess 33 children with cochlear implants (CCIs) aged 5;0-6;11 (years; months) compared to age-and gender-matched children with typical hearing (CTH). The main objectives of the study were to compare the spoken language performance of CCIs to that of CTH and to determine if there is a relationship between their language performance and the variables of gender, implant age, and chronological age. Results showed that CTH outperformed CCIs (p < .05) on all JISH-SRST subtests. Despite using spoken language to communicate, CCIs exhibited significant delays in a variety of language skills, with their weakest performance on tasks requiring the development of proper syntax and morphology skills. In general, both groups performed better in receptive language than expressive language. While gender did not have significant effects on language performance, implant age and chronological age did. Clinical implications of the findings include the significance of implementing a newborn hearing screening system for early detection of hearing loss and early cochlear implantation before age two, providing intensive speech therapy services that target complex language skills until school age and throughout the elementary years of school, and training classroom teachers to work effectively with CCIs. This will improve their communication experiences and school readiness outcomes. The findings may have ramifications for multiple stakeholders in Jordan in the health and education sectors.