Objectives: To study the level of social well-being of a new generation of children with HL by use of self-completed questionnaires
Methods: Data relate to a total of 22 children representing the new generation of children with hearing loss (HL). This generation is defined as: HL detected through neonatal hearing screening and fitted with hearing technology when relevant before 6 months, received bilateral cochlear implants when relevant before one year of age followed by specific educational training using the auditory verbal practise. Age range was from 9-12 years. Two self-completed questionnaires were used, The California Bullying Victimisation Skills (CBVS) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Project design was prospective case series.
Results: self-completed assessments revealed levels of social well-being for both questionnaires comparable to populations with normal hearing. A total of 52.6% reported to be “not a victim”, 36.8% peer victims and 10.5% bully victims on the CBVS. Results from SDQ reveals that 94.7% of the children reported to be within normal level for scores on both social strength and difficulties, 5.3 % scored slightly raised/lowered and 0% had high/low scores or very high/low scores.
Conclusion: The new generation of children with HL presents with self-completed scores comparable to peers with normal hearing. It is time to raise expectations for children with HL not only in terms of outcomes on audition and spoken language but also and most importantly on levels of social well-being.

**Objectives**: To study the level of social well-being of a new generation of children with HL by use of self-completed questionnaires
**Methods**: Data relate to a total of 22 children representing the new generation of children with hearing loss (HL). This generation is defined as: HL detected through neonatal hearing screening and fitted with hearing technology when relevant before 6 months, received bilateral cochlear implants when relevant before one year of age followed by specific educational training using the auditory verbal practise. Age range was from 9-12 years. Two self-completed questionnaires were used, The California Bullying Victimisation Skills (CBVS) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Project design was prospective case series.
**Results:** self-completed assessments revealed levels of social well-being for both questionnaires comparable to populations with normal hearing. A total of 52.6% reported to be “not a victim”, 36.8% peer victims and 10.5% bully victims on the CBVS. Results from SDQ reveals that 94.7% of the children reported to be within normal level for scores on both social strength and difficulties, 5.3 % scored slightly raised/lowered and 0% had high/low scores or very high/low scores.
**Conclusion:** The new generation of children with HL presents with self-completed scores comparable to peers with normal hearing. It is time to raise expectations for children with HL not only in terms of outcomes on audition and spoken language but also and most importantly on levels of social well-being.

Social well-being of a new generation of children with hearing loss

It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm, that on behalf of the Cochlear Implant centers of the Radboud UMC in Nijmegen and Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam to invite you to attend the 16th European Symposium on Pediatric Cochlear Implantation to Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2023.

Yours sincerely, on behalf of the CI Centers at Radboud UMC and Erasmus MC,