What is it about?
Cochlear implants have been available for three decades, but different centres use different tests, making it challenging to amass large data sets. This study pooled results using the Categories of Auditory Performance–Revised (CAPI-R) and the Categories of Linguistic Performance (CLIP) to answer this research question; Is there any added value for an infant to go ahead with cochlear implant surgery before nine months of age or is it sufficient to wait until after nine months of age? Once medical, anaesthetic and audiological criteria are met, the data from this study supported provision of cochlear implants before nine months of age for optimum language to develop.
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Why is it important?
Australian cochlear implant clinics with their strong research affiliations have been at the forefront of pediatric cochlear implant research since 1985. This large Melbourne-based study supports early access to cochlear implants before nine months of age (that is, earlier than the USA’s current Food & Drug Administration guidelines). This evidence may encourage service providers and governments in other countries to shift their cochlear implant candidacy guidelines to optimize language development for children with severe to profound bilateral hearing loss.
Perspectives
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Speech Perception and Language Outcomes for Infants Receiving Cochlear Implants Before or After 9 Months of Age: Use of Category-Based Aggregation of Data in an Unselected Pediatric Cohort, Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, March 2021, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00228.
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Resources
Long term communication outcomes for children receiving cochlear implants younger than 12 months: A multi-centre study
Large retrospective study from three Australian centres (2016) which demonstrated impact of early access to cochlear implants for infants with hearing loss
Communication development in children who receive the cochlear implant younger than 12 months: Risks versus benefit
Original article (2007) examined language growth rates for infants who received cochlear implants before 12 months compared to toddlers who received cochlear implants between 13 and 24 months of age.
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