Hearing screening, cochlear implantation and genetics: how to counsel parents?

摘要

Early screened and early implanted children can make excellent progress close to typical hearing children, but it has also brought new questions into the families of children with a hearing loss. There is now a lot of time pressure on these families because they have to make a lot of decisions very early in the live of their deaf child. This can be very stressful for the parents, which can have a negative impact on the parent-child interaction. So, although we know that early implantation is very important, it is often better to give the parents a broader time frame for action and that we stay sensitive to their preferences, not ours. Parents do need information and it is the professional's responsibility to provide it. But the information has to be given with sensitivity to the parent's ability to absorb it. Mindful informational and emotional counseling of the parents needs to be an important component of the successful use of the cochlear implant.