Effect of Online Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders on Emotion Perception of School-Aged Children with Cochlear Implant

Background and Aim: Emotion perception means the ability to identify, predict and explain one’s own emotions and those of others. Less attention has been paid to the psychosocial effects of hearing loss such as emotion perception. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of the unified protocol for transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders on emotion perception of children with Cochlear Implant (CI). Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest/post-test/follow-up design. Participants were 18 children with CI aged 8–11 years and their mothers were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. All mothers and their children in the experimental group received the Unified Protocol (UP) program online at 20 sessions twice a week. For the evaluation of emotion perception, we used the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) which had high internal consistency. For statistical analyses, descriptive statistics and repeated measures ANOVA were used. Results: Mean score of emotion comprehension test at the mental and reflective levels and its overall score were significantly different between pretest and post-test and between pretest and follow-up phases in both group. The difference in the external level of emotion perception was not significant among three phases in any groups. Conclusion: The UP program can positively affect the emotion perception in children with CI, especially in more difficult levels (mental and reflective), and its effects remain stable three months after the intervention. Keywords: Emotion; children; cochlear implants; perception; transdiagnostic treatment.