New York Eye and Ear Infirmary Awarded $2.5 Million Federal Grant to Study Language in Children with Cochlear Implants
Elizabeth Ying, Supervisor of Hearing Habilitation of the NYEE Ear Institute, participates in the study and works extensively with children who have had cochlear implants.
New York, NY (December 2010) -- The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary has been awarded a five-year $2.5 million grant by the NIH- National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders to fund a study, Language Processing in Children with Cochlear Implants, by Richard G. Schwartz, Ph.D., Director of the Language and Hearing Research Laboratory at the Ear Institute at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and Presidential Professor of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
The research will investigate how children with cochlear implants acquire language compared with their normal-hearing peers. Although cochlear implantation as early as possible in children who are deaf is successful in providing sufficient hearing to acquire oral language, little is known about the detailed language outcomes. This research project will examine vocabulary knowledge and processing in understanding and speaking using state-of-the-art methods.
Findings of the study should help improve approaches by speech therapists as they evaluate and work with very young children with cochlear implants, optimizing the way they learn speech and language. The study will use control groups consisting of normal hearing children (ages 5-11 years) and children with cochlear implants (ages 7-11years). Families interested in being part of this study, please contact Dr. Richard Schwartz at (646) 438-7838.
About The Ear Institute at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary
The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary Ear Institute is a comprehensive center focusing solely on diseases of the ear and related structures. Each division of the Ear Institute offers patients and their families comprehensive, timely and compassionate evaluation and management.
The Hearing and Learning Center is a world renowned center of excellence for the diagnoses and management of children with hearing loss, particularly difficult-to-test children and children with associated co-morbidities. The Hearing and Learning Center is distinguished by its extensive Educator Liaison Program dedicated to assisting children with cochlear implants and/or hearing aids to succeed in mainstream schools.
The Cochlear Implant Center is one of the largest in the United States and implants children as young as six months and adults into their 90s.
The Center for Hearing and Balance Disorders offers advanced diagnostic testing, state-of-the-art hearing aids and assistive listening devices, and comprehensive balance therapy at the Center for Vestibular Rehabilitation.
The Ear Institute participates in basic science research projects and clinical trials. Among them are projects to research the mechanisms by which hair cell damage in the ear can cause hearing loss and balance dysfunction, and ways to reverse such hair cell damage. Others are working toward identification of genes whose mutations cause hereditary hearing loss and balance deficits.
Media Information
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