Abstract:
Cochlear implantation has been very successful in postlingually deafened children. Implants provide them with substantial levels of speech reception, which in turn allows them to achieve better intelligibility, speech production, and English language proficiency. Congenitally or prelingually deafened children, while less successful than the aforementioned group, have also shown benefit in speech production and language measures. Performance varies greatly in this group, but there appears to be a trend towards better results when implantation is performed earlier in life. This presentation will analyze measures of speech production and language ability in children deafened before age 3 (who comprise the vast majority of pediatric cochlear implant candidates) as well as in children who are later deafened. Individual and group data will be discussed in view of the subjects' communication mode (oral or total communication), age at deafening, age at implant, and years of experience with the implant. [Work supported by NIDCD Grant Nos. DC00064 and DC00423.]