The VOICE E-Toolkit is an online open space platform, addressed to parents and support groups confronting with children with cochlear implants.
The VOICE E-Toolkit represents open educational resources of a comprehensive approach of cochlear implant rehabilitation plan for children. The E-Toolkit is designed by specialists and contain a wide variety of materials and information for every need.
The VOICE E-Toolkit includes the following:
1. Testimonials – examples of cases and testimonials (including videos) of success stories.
2. CI games and activities – examples of exercises/games and activities to be used with children with cochlear implants.
3. CI rehab planning – examples of planning actions with stages of learning the speech of children with cochlear implants. When success is coming.
4. Informative materials for specific beneficiaries – patience, parents, specialists, teachers, doctors.
5. Glossary of terms for internationalisation of rehab after paediatric CI.
Click on the topic of interest, to discover the educational learning resources offered.
Sessions with parents held in all partners’ countries
Testimonials from parents
It is difficult to have a child with hearing loss. We found the opportunity to have a cochlear implant and then we went to speech therapy. But we don’t live in a big city so our access to resources is limited. When we found the VOICE website (recommended by our SLP) we realised that we are not alone. We read the other cases and we were so happy that we could find all sorts of ideas on how to work with our son. It really is of great help.
Our girl had her cochlear implants done a year ago when she was almost two years old. The surgeon recommended to go a speech therapist but we live in the countryside so we can come to the therapy only once a month. We found out about VOICE project from one of our best friends and we were amazed of the amount of information about our girl’s condition. The videos and examples of the activities we can do at home between two therapy sessions are so helpful and they also save us a lot of time and money.
My son had a cochlear implant when he was 2. Now he is 5, we still have speaking problems to correct, and we are still worried that there will be a great challenge when he goes to school next year. The Doctor Who operated him told us about the project VOICE, and asked us to look at all the resources it offers. It really helped us and I think it can help a lot of parents in our situation, not only with information but also with the examples case studies and activities we can do with our son ourselves. Not to mention that it is also a section for transition to school which will help us a lot.
Living with a cochlear implanted child is not easy because you have to leans a lot of new skills on how to work with him. So, you look for information anywhere. The speech therapist, we work with told us about the VOICE project, and that we can’t find all sorts of information on its platform. We were impressed that we could read about the medical problems that can cause hearing loss, but most importantly, we found a lot of ideas on how to work with our son at home. I think that for me, as a mother, was comforting to read about all the cases and that there is hope for my child to lead a normal and happy life. It is great that all this information is gathered in one place so we don’t have to search the whole Internet.
Last month, our little daughter received a bilateral cochlear implant and we are still worried about what we will have to face in the future. The wonderful surgeon who helped us mention this project. She had worked on, VOICE, and told us that we can find answers to our questions there. And yes, we found information for almost all the questions we have. We haven’t been able to go to a speech therapist yet, but now we are more informed and we know where to start. We are grateful to all of these specialists who managed to share all this knowledge with us, parents.