Do Early Cochlear-Implanted Toddlers Show a Better Speech Development than Later Implanted Children?

Objective Long term goal in early cochlea implantation in children without any additional disabilities is an age-appropriate speech development. Material and Methods Speech development in deaf children with cochlear-implant(s) (n = 60) was examined with the german language test battery SETK-2 (Sprachentwicklungstest fur 2-jahrige Kinder) 2 years after first mapping of the speech processor. Results More than 68 % of the subjects show in all 4 subtests hearingage equivalent results in receptive and expressive language. 12 children were additionally evaluated by chronological age. 4 of these children show age-appropriate results. There is no significant difference between the children implanted earlier in life (>= 12 months) and later implanted children (>= 13 months). But it must be kept in mind, that children who were implanted earlier show the same results at a younger age. The discrepancy between their chronological age and their speech development- age is smaller. Speech development in children who grow up bilingually was delayed in German. Conclusions The results lead to the conclusion that the time of the cochlea implantation is crucial for further development of the children who were born deaf. Rehabilitation concepts have to put a special focus on children who grow up with more than one language