11th International conference on cochlear implants in children

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请申请支持第十一届儿童人工耳蜗研讨会。研讨会将于2007年4月11日至14日在北卡罗来纳州夏洛特市举行。自1986年以来，该研讨会每两年举行一次。会议集中讨论了许多对外科医生、听力学家、语言病理学家、听力科学家、工程师和教育工作者都很重要的儿童人工耳蜗主题。这一系列正在进行的专题讨论会提供了一个有价值的机制，使该领域与研究和技术的进展保持同步，并提供了来自广泛相关领域的观点。该研讨会将由北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校主办，并将重点介绍当前对儿科植入具有重要意义的一些主题领域。重点领域将包括：1)幼儿人工耳蜗植入；2)与听神经病变相关的外科、康复和候选问题；3)双侧人工耳蜗植入及双耳听力提示的相关问题。这些重点领域将在上午的会议上通过13个邀请演讲、来自科学界的贡献演讲、小组讨论和观众参与来探讨。除了这些重点领域之外，在下午的口头和海报会议上还将讨论一系列其他儿科人工耳蜗植入问题。根据本系列最近的专题讨论会，预计将提交约250份海报报告和75份口头报告。儿童人工耳蜗植入术极大地改善了重度听力损失儿童的生活可能性和期望；然而，我们还远远没有意识到这种方法治疗儿童耳聋的所有潜在好处。持续的进步取决于外科医生、听力科学家、工程师、听力学家、言语/语言病理学家和教育工作者之间的持续互动和思想交流。本次研讨会的目的是继续这种必要和富有成效的互动。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests support for the 11th Symposium on Cochlear Implants in Children. The symposium will be held April 11-14, 2007, in Charlotte, North Carolina. This symposium has been held biannually since 1986. The meetings have focused on numerous pediatric cochlear implant topics that are of importance to surgeons, audiologists, speech-language pathologists, hearing scientists, engineers, and educators. This ongoing series of symposia affords a valuable mechanism to keep the field abreast of advances in research and technology, and provides perspectives from a wide range of relevant fields. The symposium will be sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will highlight a number of topic areas that are of current importance to pediatric implantation. Areas of focus will include: 1) cochlear implantation for the very young child; 2) surgical, habilitation and candidacy issues related to auditory neuropathy; and 3) issues that are related to bilateral cochlear implantation and the provision of binaural hearing cues to deaf children. These areas of focus will be explored in the morning sessions via thirteen invited presentations, contributed talks from the scientific community, panel discussions, and audience participation. In addition to these focus areas, a range of other topical pediatric cochlear implantation issues will be examined in afternoon contributed oral and poster sessions. Based upon recent symposia in this series, submission of approximately 250 poster presentations and 75 oral presentations is expected. Pediatric cochlear implantation is greatly benefiting the life possibilities and expectations of children with profound hearing losses; however, we are still far from realizing all of the potential benefits of this approach to the treatment of childhood deafness. Continued progress hinges upon continued interaction and exchange of ideas among surgeons, hearing scientists, engineers, audiologists, speech/language pathologists, and educators. The purpose of this symposium is to continue this necessary and productive interaction.