BEARS
Teenagers using bilateral (both ears) cochlear implants may not be fulfilling their potential due to problems with sound localisation and speech-in-noise understanding. These deficits negatively affect speech and language development, education, and social wellbeing. Recent evidence suggests that spatial hearing abilities develop over time with bilateral experience, and a large body of research shows that sound localisation can improve with training, underpinned by plasticity changes in the auditory pathways in children and adults. The lack of protocols for fitting bilateral cochlear implants, of ecologically valid tests and of training methods to improve spatial skills may contribute to this problem. We have developed a package of Virtual Reality (VR) games to train teenagers with bilateral cochlear implants in sound localisation and spatial listening skills, and we want to find out if using these games improves children and young people’s hearing. To answer this question we are now running a clinical trial led by Debi Vickers from University of Cambridge and Dan Jiang from Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust. Several other UK universities are involved in the work.
We have developed a package of Virtual Reality (VR) games to train teenagers with bilateral cochlear implants in sound localisation and spatial listening skills, and we want to find out if using these games improves children and young people’s hearing. To answer this question we are now running a clinical trial led by Debi Vickers from University of Cambridge and Dan Jiang from Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust. Several other UK universities are involved in the work.
This project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) under its Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) Programme (Grant Reference Number NIHR201608).
We are recruiting children and young people in many of the paediatric cochlear implant centres in the UK. The centres that are currently enrolling are:
- Belfast
- Bradford
- Cambridge
- Great Ormond Street
- Guy’s and St Thomas’
- Manchester
- North East
- Nottingham
- Oxford
- Scotland
- Southampton
- St George’s
- UCLH
We already have nearly 200 children and young people who have agreed to take part – thank you SO MUCH to all the children and their families for their time.
Young people aged 8 to 16 years with bilateral implants are randomised to either use the VR games at home for three months, or continue on their usual care pathway. The games can either be played on a Meta Quest headset or on an iPad; we provide all equipment for participants to use. Children reaching the end of the project receive £50 in vouchers, and we can help with travel expenses too. If the BEARS games are proved to help, we would like to roll them out into the NHS care pathway for children and young people with bilateral cochlear implants.
We have involved children and young people with cochlear implants and their families at every stage of this project. Read more about how one deaf teenager has been involved in our work.
And watch her video on NIHR’s Facebook account - which had more than 16,000 views!
If you and your child would like to take part or find out more, please contact your cochlear implant centre or contact the BEARS team via Helen Cullington (H.Cullington@Southampton.ac.uk).