Haukedal CL, et al. - In a group of children with cochlear implants (CIs), researchers evaluated self-reported health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) and contrasted their scores to age- and gender-matched controls. In addition, they evaluated the agreement between proxy- and self-reported HR-QOL in the CI group and analyzed individual and environmental variables that could be correlated with higher or lower self-reported HR-QOL in the CI group. Participants in the study were 168 children between the ages of 5;6 and 13;1 (years;months), where 84 children had CIs (CI group) and 84 were age- and gender-matched controls with normal hearing (NH group). In this study, most children with CIs reported HR-QOLs which were similar to those of their age- and gender-matched normal-hearing peers. However, the children reported concerns about social and school functioning, suggesting that these areas need more focus to ensure good HR-QOL for children with CIs. Improving spoken-language skills can lead to improved HR-QOL in children with CIs.