Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Comm4CHILD (Communication for Children with Hearing Impairment to optimise Language Development) Reporting period: 2020-02-01 to 2022-01-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project The World Health Assembly adopted a 2017 resolution recognising Hearing Impairment (HI) as a priority worldwide health issue. Children with HI present significant risks for language acquisition, educational achievement, socio-emotional development, and well-being. Current intervention plans fail to prepare those children for academic achievement and social participation in contemporary society where the diversity of their needs is increasing. Comm4CHILD is a consortium implementing an innovative approach for optimising the communicative skills and social inclusion of children with HI. Comm4CHILD addresses the large inter-individual heterogeneity in brain plasticity, cognitive resources, and linguistic abilities, and takes full advantage of this heterogeneity to support efficient communicative skills in children with HI. A group of 15 ESRs are trained in research and intervention in a cross-sectoral way. The work of the ESRs (1) enhance mapping of the factors underlying heterogeneity, (2) advance the understanding of the predictors of linguistic communicative skills, and (3) develop new intervention methods. The output of this unique consortium is expected to have an impact across all aspects of HI children's everyday life. Specifically, Comm4CHILD will provide a significantly improved understanding of communicative and social skills that will underpin the development of innovative future treatment and rehabilitation measures. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far During the first reporting period, the 15 ESRs were recruited and enrolled in doctoral schools. Two Comm4CHILD workshops were organized by the consortium to ensure that the ESRs receive valuable interdisciplinary training to complement their local training. They also provided the ESRs with the opportunity to present their work and receive constructive feedbacks. Despite the context linked to Covid-19 pandemic, significant progress has been achieved in each scientific work package. Progress were made to understand the biological, mechanistic, processes underlying the outcome variations at the peripheral and central level in individuals with HI following therapy (work package 1), to explore various means to make communication easier and help children with HI to optimise their cognitive resources for interaction and learning (work package 2) and to evaluate how individual language and learning resources affect spoken and written communication and facilitate daily-life interaction according to the opportunities and constraints of the communicative environment (work package 3). All ESRs have conducted thorough literature reviews that allowed them to develop state-of-the art approaches to address their research questions and many of them have already conducted pilot studies. The preliminary data are promising with regard to the objectives the project.So far, the ESRs made 47 communications to the scientific and/or industrial community, including 27 posters and 20 oral communications in national and international workshops and conferences. Several outreach activities were made to the general public, members of the deaf and hard of hearing communities, as well as practitioners in the rehabilitation network. On top of that, fact sheets were published on the website in January 2022. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) Comm4CHILD addresses the need for delivering improved hearing care for children with HI by training a new generation of translational ESRs able to span several sectors. Comm4CHILD also contributes to structuring doctoral/early-stage research training at the European level by providing all ESRs with the scientific knowledge, technical excellence, and transferable skills necessary to pursue a successful career in academia, industry, or in the health and policy sector. This is especially important as formal training of persons who support children with HI does not exist in several countries, while there is a growing need to bridge the gap between technology and HI. The ESRs will be able to motivate new educational, clinical, technological, and policy innovations to support the development of linguistic communicative skills and learning abilities of children with HI. In terms of strengthening European innovation capacity, Comm4CHILD contributes to the future leadership in the provision of hearing health care that will reduce the socio-economic burden of poorly treated HI at European level. The ESRs will become a team of “paediatric hearing care entrepreneurs” of the future, with a huge potential for (1) innovating and contributing to worldwide commercialization of new hearing technologies and new care solutions and services, (2) strengthening the hearing healthcare industry, and (3) creating new jobs in the EU. This in turn will ensure a better use of current and future hearing device technology, thanks to individually-based clinical practices and intervention strategies. This work will lead to new strategies and policies in rehabilitation of children with HI, and interventions that address their multiple challenges. Comm4CHILD work packages comm4CHILD logo
