Neural Prediction to Enhance Language

Arm1: Non-treatment Model Building. Up to 700 children will be recruited from 5 cochlear implant programs in the United States. Children will be enrolled and followed for up to four years after implantation. Study information will be obtained from each child's medical record before and after implantation including cause of hearing loss, general health, language and communication history, family history, cochlear implant device and surgery. Audiological information before and after implantation will be collected from routine visits that are part of cochlear implant candidacy evaluation and audiology evaluations after implantation. This includes audiology evaluations after activation of the cochlear implant that take place at around 6, 12, 18, 24, 36 and/or 48 months. Pre-surgical MRI done at each participating site as part of routine pre-operative evaluation will also be collected for analysis. If enrolled into the study at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago before the pre-surgical MRI is done, the parent or guardian will have the option to have their child undergo additional research scans during the pre-surgical MRI. Parents will be asked to complete baseline and follow-up surveys. The surveys will ask about family demographic and health information, language exposure in the home, therapy and school services, and language and communication ability of the child. Parental surveys will be readministered at about 12-month intervals after the child's device is turned on. In addition, surveys about the child's cognition will be sent to parents after their child has used their implant for one and two years. Surveys will be offered online by a secure link provided during clinical visits, emailed after the visit or sent by MyChart to the parent/guardian for completion at home. An in-person research-only speech and language evaluation will be done at about one-year intervals after initial implantation during each year the child is enrolled in the study. The evaluation will take less than two hours. Arm 2: Communication Treatment. In addition to all of the study procedures described above for Arm1, at only Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, 10 children will be enrolled in each of four years who meet additional inclusion criteria. Children enrolled in this arm will receive Parent Implemented Communication Treatment (PICT). PICT involves training parents to use communication skills to support development of their child's language. PICT will consist of one-hour weekly sessions for about six months provided virtually by a secure video chat system such as Zoom. The child and parent/caregiver will both participate in each weekly session. In addition, parent and child social interactions will be evaluated by video chat each month for six months and then annually for two years. The parent and child social interaction evaluation will take less than 15 minutes. Children who receive PICT will continue to receive all other therapies. In other words, no therapies will be discontinued during the time children are receiving PICT.