THE RELATION BETWEEN AGE AT THE TIME OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION AND LONG-TERM SPEECH-PERCEPTION ABILITIES IN CONGENITALLY DEAF SUBJECTS

The issue of whether an upper age limit should be set for cochlear imp lantation in congenitally deaf subjects has often been debated. To gai n more insight, the speech perception abilities were analyzed of 12 co ngenitally deaf subjects whose age at the time of cochlear implantatio n ranged from 4 to 33 years. Subjects implanted during adulthood only showed progress during the first few months after the speech processor had been fitted and their long-term results were poor compared to tho se of children implanted early in life. This latter group showed stead y improvement over the whole evaluation period, The present results su pport the notion that the earlier in life implantation is performed, t he better the development of speech perception. Based on the progress- over-time profiles and data on actual daily use of the cochlear implan t, it can be suggested that implantation of congenitally deaf subjects during or after puberty offers only limited benefit. (C) 1997 Elsevie r Science Ireland Ltd.