BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The primary purpose of this study was to assess whether very early access to speech sounds provided by the cochlear implant enables children to develop age-appropriate phonological awareness abilities in their preschool and school years. A secondary purpose of this study was to examine whether children who had cochlear implantation before 18 months of age will develop better skills in phonological awareness than children who had cochlear implants in 18-36 months of age. A third purpose of this study was to examine whether some factors like the child's age or sex would have any effects on developing of age-appropriate phonological awareness abilities. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: 48 children with 70 to 95 months of age who had been utilizing their cochlear implant(s) before 36 months of age (CI group) and 30 normal hearing peers (NH group) were enrolled in this study. RESULTS: Child's age had a significant effect on phonological awareness, but sex had absolutely no effect in each group. Children in the cochlear implanted group were outperformed by their normal hearing peers in the area of phonological awareness, especially in phonemic awareness. The age of implantation was another significant variable. CONCLUSIONS: Although children with a younger age at implantation got better scores in phonological awareness test, they were outperformed by their normal hearing peers in this area.
Awareness ; Child* ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants* ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Phonetics

According to historical evidence, the abuse of opium has been reported all over the globe-specifically throughout Eastern nations-since the sixteenth century. Before that, opium had mostly been applied as medication. Reference has been made in traditional Persian medical literature to the method of cultivation, properties, side effects and toxicity. In sixteenth century Iran, during the reign of the Safavids, opium abuse began. It was from then that prominent Persian scholars started to think of solutions to this societal problem. One of the most famous scholars was Imad al-Din Mahmud ibn Mas'ud Shirazi, who composed a book concerning addiction-Afyunieh, a comprehensive book on the topic of opium and all issues of opium. Furthermore, he recommended methods for reducing opium dose as well as substitution with other medications that had a narrower range of side effects, in order to eradicate dependency upon opium and opium-derived materials. This is most likely the first book that comprehensively addressed opium and discussed drug rehabilitation methodology, in traditional Persian medical literature. In this historical review, the authors have introduced the book Afyunieh, which presents methods for treating addiction to and giving up opium; the text comprises a synthesis of the author's opinions, professional experience and references to the work of other famous physicians.