According to a new report, deaf children benefit the most from cochlear implants if they are received early in the child's life. The children experience significant improvements in communication skills.

You can read this report in the Archives of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery.

This new study was carried out by Amy McConkey Robbins and her team, Communication Consulting Services, Indianapolis, USA.

They compared the communication skills of 107 children who were hearing-impaired. All the children had received cochlear implants. They were compared to 109 children who had no hearing problems. The assessment was done by asking the parents to fill in a questionnaire.

Most of the hearing impaired kids who had received an implant early in life, between 12-23 months of age, developed communication skills at levels similar to the children who had no hearing problems. On the other hand, the kids who received their implants later fell behind the children with normal hearing.

In another study, carried out at Athens University, Greece, Dr. Thomas P. Nikolopoulos monitored 82 hearing impaired children who received a cochlear implant before they were 7 years old. 38 of them had their implants placed before they were 4, the other 44 children had them placed later.

30 months after receiving the implants 60% of the kids who had their implant before they were 4 tested above the first percentile of non-deaf kids. 23% of the people who had received their implants when they were over 4 tested above the first percentile of normal hearing kids.

Amy Robbins said "Performing implantation in children with profound hearing loss at the youngest age possible allows the best opportunity for them to acquire communication skills that approximate those of their peers with normal hearing."

Nikolopoulos said that if grammatical accuracy is to be achieved the child should have the implant placed early in life.