Cochlear implants (CIs) provide auditory access that supports the development of oral language in deaf children with severe-to-profound hearing loss, especially when implantation occurs early. This study assessed narrative abilities in 16 school-aged children with early CIs compared to 16 typically hearing peers matched for age, using a multilevel framework encompassing productivity, microlinguistic, and...
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Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Early cochlear implantation appears to support oral language development, but clinicians should monitor multilevel narrative skills as a sensitive marker of ongoing language gaps compared to hearing peers — incorporate narrative assessment into follow-up protocols for this population.
Narrative language assessment is an underutilised outcome measure for early-implanted children, and this study may refine how audiologists and speech-language pathologists set expectations and plan habilitation after cochlear implantation.
- 01Study compares multilevel narrative skills in early-implanted deaf children vs. typically hearing peers.
- 02Published in Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, a peer-reviewed journal.
- 03Early cochlear implantation is the key intervention variable examined.
- 04Multilevel narrative assessment captures story structure, cohesion, and linguistic detail simultaneously.
- 05Findings have direct implications for post-implant speech-language habilitation planning.
Early cochlear implantation supports oral language development in deaf children with severe-to-profound hearing loss.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42734364
- DOI
- 10.1080/02699206.2026.2723292.
- Journal
- Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Children with early cochlear implants and typically hearing peers
- Intervention
- Early cochlear implantation
- Comparator
- Typically hearing children
Primary outcomes
Multilevel narrative language skills; Oral language development