title: Spoken language benefits of extending cochlear implant candidacy below 12 months of age.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the hypothesis that cochlear implantation surgery before 12 months of age yields better spoken language results than surgery between 12 and 18 months of age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Language testing administered to children at 4.5 years of age (± 2 mo).
  
  
  METHODS
  Schools, speech-language therapy offices, and cochlear implant (CI) centers in the United States and Canada.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-nine children who received a cochlear implant between ages 6 and 18 months of age. All children were learning to communicate via listening and spoken language in English-speaking families.
  
  
  METHODS
  Standard scores on receptive vocabulary, expressive, and receptive language (includes grammar).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children with CI surgery at 6 to 11 months (n = 27) achieved higher scores on all measures as compared with those with surgery at 12 to 18 months (n = 42). Regression analysis revealed a linear relationship between age of implantation and language outcomes throughout the 6- to 18-month surgery-age range.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For children in intervention programs emphasizing listening and spoken language, cochlear implantation before 12 months of age seems to provide a significant advantage for spoken language achievement observed at 4.5 years of age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and NeckSurgery, Campus Box 8115, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. NicholasJ@ent.wustl.edu
authors.forename: Johanna G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Nicholas
authors.forename: Ann E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Geers
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014825:Vocabulary