{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T04:55:16Z","timestamp":1787028916257,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,24]],"date-time":"2023-07-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1690156800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Agency for Community Programs in the Field of Education and Vocational Training","award":["2020-1-RO01-KA202-080059"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020-1-RO01-KA202-080059"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and objectives: More and more children with severe-to-profound hearing loss are receiving cochlear implants (CIs) at an early age to improve their hearing and listening abilities, speech recognition, speech intelligibility, and other aspects of spoken language development. Despite this, the rehabilitation outcomes can be very heterogeneous in this population, not only because of issues related to surgery and fitting or the specific characteristics of the child with his\/her additional disabilities but also because of huge differences in the quality of the support and rehabilitation offered by the therapist and the family. These quality standards for the rehabilitation of young deaf children receiving CIs are developed within the European KA202 Erasmus+ project \u201cVOICE\u201d\u2014vocational education and training for speech and language therapists and parents for the rehabilitation of children with CIs, Ref. No.: 2020-1-RO01-KA202-080059. Material and methods: To develop these quality standards, we used the input from the face-to-face interviews of 11 local rehabilitation experts in CIs from the four partner countries of the project and the outcomes of the bibliographic analysis of 848 publications retrieved from six databases: Pub Med, Psych Info, CINAHL, Scopus, Eric, and Cochrane. Based on all this information, we created a first set of 32 quality standards over four domains: general, fitting, rehabilitation, and for professionals. Further on, the Delphi method was used by 18 international rehabilitation experts to discuss and agree on these standards. Results: The results from the literature analysis and the interviews show us that more than 90% of the consulted international experts agreed on 29 quality standards. They focus on different aspects of rehabilitation: the multidisciplinary team, their expertise and knowledge, important rehabilitation topics to focus on, and programming issues related to rehabilitation. Conclusions: These quality standards aim to optimize the activity of speech rehabilitation specialists so that they reach the optimal level of expertise. Also presented is the necessary equipment for the IC team to carry out the rehabilitation sessions in good conditions. This set of quality standards can be useful to ensure the appropriate postoperative care of these children. As a result, the rehabilitation process will be more relaxed, and therapists will have the opportunity to focus more on the specific needs of each child, with the provision of quality services, which will result in better results. This theme is particularly complex and dependent on multifactorial aspects of medicine, education, speech therapy, social work, and psychology that are very intricate and interdependent.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina59071354","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,25]],"date-time":"2023-07-25T01:21:27Z","timestamp":1690248087000},"page":"1354","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Quality Standard for Rehabilitation of Young Deaf Children Receiving Cochlear Implants"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"59","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9674-6485","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Leo","family":"De Raeve","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Independent Information Center on CI\u2019s (ONICI), 3520 Zonhoven, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2564-537X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marinela-Carmen","family":"Cump\u0103t","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Rehabilitation Hospital, 700661 Iasi, Romania"},{"name":"Department of Medical Specialties, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201dGrigore T. Popa\u201d, 700115 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aim\u00e9e","family":"van Loo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Prevention Center Zuyd, Zuyd University of Applied Science, Nieuw Eyckholt 300, 6419 DJ Heerlen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5205-0101","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Isabel Monteiro","family":"Costa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health Sciences (ESSUA), University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"},{"name":"Center for Research in Health Technologies and Services (CINTESIS@RISE), 4200-450 Porto, Portugal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8976-0625","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria Assun\u00e7\u00e3o","family":"Matos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health Sciences (ESSUA), University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"},{"name":"Center for Research in Health Technologies and Services (CINTESIS@RISE), 4200-450 Porto, Portugal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jo\u00e3o Canossa","family":"Dias","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health Sciences (ESSUA), University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"},{"name":"Center for Research in Health Technologies and Services (CINTESIS@RISE), 4200-450 Porto, Portugal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cristian","family":"M\u00e2r\u021bu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Rehabilitation Hospital, 700661 Iasi, Romania"},{"name":"Department of Medical Specialties, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201dGrigore T. Popa\u201d, 700115 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bogdan","family":"Cavaleriu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Rehabilitation Hospital, 700661 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alois","family":"Ghergu\u021b","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Department of Education Sciences, \u201cAlexandru Ioan Cuza\u201d University of Ia\u0219i, 11 Carol I Boulevard, 700506 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9700-8794","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alexandra","family":"Maftei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Department of Education Sciences, \u201cAlexandru Ioan Cuza\u201d University of Ia\u0219i, 11 Carol I Boulevard, 700506 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5696-8358","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ovidiu-Cristian","family":"Tudorean","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Department of Education Sciences, \u201cAlexandru Ioan Cuza\u201d University of Ia\u0219i, 11 Carol I Boulevard, 700506 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Corina","family":"Butnaru","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Specialties, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201dGrigore T. Popa\u201d, 700115 Iasi, Romania"},{"name":"Society of Otology and Cohlear Implant (SOIC), Str. Pantelimon Halipa nr 14, 700661 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Roxana","family":"\u0218erban","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Specialties, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201dGrigore T. Popa\u201d, 700115 Iasi, Romania"},{"name":"Society of Otology and Cohlear Implant (SOIC), Str. Pantelimon Halipa nr 14, 700661 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tatiana","family":"Meriacre","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Specialties, University of Medicine and Pharmacy \u201dGrigore T. Popa\u201d, 700115 Iasi, Romania"},{"name":"Society of Otology and Cohlear Implant (SOIC), Str. 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