Abstract:

Evidence shows that early implantation of congenitally deaf children is beneficial. However, infants as young as 6 months of age have started to receive cochlear implants (CIs) in the USA. Such early implantation may be associated with higher risks, including anesthetic risk as well as the increased possibility of a false positive in the diagnosis of profound deafness. On the other hand, delaying implantation may be associated with the risk of missing windows of opportunity or sensitive periods for the development of communication skills. In this study, speech perception and language skills in children who received CIs in the first, second, third, or fourth year of life were compared. Participants were tested at regular 6-month intervals after implantation. The effects of several potential confounds were considered. In general, children implanted earlier outperformed those implanted later, with one exception: infants implanted at 6--12 months showed similar outcomes to children implanted at 12--24 months, at least through 2 to 2-1/2 years of age. This preliminary result may be associated with the difficulty of choosing appropriate stimulation parameters for infants, and its potential influence on the quality of the stimulation patterns delivered by the CI.