Measuring communicative performance with the German version of the FAPCI-instrument: normative data and longitudinal results

Abstract

Objective: The German version of the Functioning after Paediatric Cochlear Implantation (FAPCI) inventory was designed to capture the communicative performance of cochlear implanted children. In order to be able to compare cochlear-implanted children to their normal hearing peers, normative growth curves were designed. Furthermore it was of interest how the communicative performance develops over time and whether it is influenced by age at implantation.

Method: A polynomial regression curve was fit to the data of 133 normal hearing children. This normative curve was compared to individual growth curves of 90 cochlear implanted children. The cochlear-implanted study sample was split up into four groups depending on the age at implantation.

Results: The normative growth curve increases from 1 year of age until saturation is reached with 3 years of age. The individual FAPCI trajectories of cochlear implanted children are heterogeneous, but in general they are delayed in comparison to the normative growth curve. "Early implanted children" follow the development of their normal hearing peers more closely than "later-implanted children".

Conclusion: The German version of the FAPCI parental questionnaire constitutes an additional instrument in monitoring the communicative performance development of cochlear implanted children and allows for comparison to normal hearing peers.