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Events & News
Events & News
Events & News
June 3, 2023

Inclusive schools for young deaf CI users - ESPCI 2023

Intro

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Invited to present a symposium around the theme “Growing up with CI”, the 16th European Symposium on Pediatric Cochlear Implantation (ESPCI) in Rotterdam (May 31- June 3) was a great opportunity to present our work on inclusive school settings. As Carolien Rieffe opened and moderated the session “Welcome to school! Social inclusion of young CI users in their daily environments”, individual presentations were given by

  • Brenda Sousa da Silva (“More hearing, more play? CI contribution to preschoolers’ interactions and inclusion”)
  • Yung-Ting Tsou (“Can we sense it? A multi-method, data-driven approach for understanding social dynamics of children with CI in primary schools”)
  • Claudia Libbi (“Everyday Soundscapes. Towards more CI-inclusive school break environments”)

ESPCI is attended by a wide range of professionals in medicine, psychology, healthcare, the cochlear implant (CI) industry, as well as CI-users and their parents. Raising the matter of empowering CI youth by creating more inclusive environments (alongside technological progress) was important to us.

Panel by youth with CI

An ESPCI-2023 highlight was the inspiring panel discussion by five young CI-users sharing their diverse experiences of daily life, growing up, picking hobbies, career paths and overcoming challenges in a predominantly hearing world. Their stories called for an environment that nurtures self-confidence, supports advocating their own needs, and links to their community. Afterwards, we caught up with these strong young people and now look forward to continue this connection and include their voices into future collaboration and research.

Top photo, left to right: Johan Frijns, Carolien Rieffe, Dennis Massar, Qais, Taco Verheijden, Kate Jord, Line Troost and Claudia Libbi

Lower photo, left to right, Claudia Libbi, Yung-Ting Tsou, Brenda da Silva, Carolien Rieffe