Deaf children with learning delays benefit from cochlear implants more than hearing aids

Up to three out of every 1,000 infants in the United States are born with profound hearing loss.

Typically, infants with hearing loss are first treated with hearing aids, and if these fail to help them develop early language and speech skills, they then become eligible for cochlear implants at 12 months or older. Cochlear implants — considered the gold standard of treatment — are small, electronic devices surgically placed under the skin that stimulate nerve endings in the ear to provide a sense of sound.

However, some insurance companies have traditionally denied coverage of cochlear implants to deaf children with severe developmental delays (such as low cognitive skills and low adaptive, or learned, behavior), under the belief that the implants will not help them learn to communicate.

Now, a new study from Keck Medicine of USC has found that infants with hearing loss and severe developmental delays are better served with cochlear implants than hearing aids.

“We demonstrated that cochlear implants improve the skills of deaf children with early developmental impairment across the board in every skill tested — cognitive, adaptive behavior, language and auditory” said John Oghalai, MD, an otolaryngologist with Keck Medicine, chair of the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery and lead author of the study.

In 2010, researchers identified children with severe to profound hearing loss at two large pediatric cochlear implant centers in Texas and California.

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