2020 Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 140-148
In this study, we examined the effect of age at the start of intervention in children using hearing aids (HAs), and also the effect of age at the start of intervention and the effect of age at cochlear implantation in children using cochlear implants (CIs). All these children had profound hearing loss of 90dB or over and had received the same educational program using the auditory-verbal/oral method. We assessed their language ability using the WPPSI Intelligence Test at 6 years of age. Statistical analysis showed that the Verbal IQ (VIQ) scores of children using HAs who started the intervention at 11 months of age (average) were significantly higher than those of the children using HAs who started the intervention at 2 years of age. The VIQ scores of children who started the intervention at 11 months of age and received CIs at 2 years of age were significantly higher than the VIQ scores of children who started the intervention at 2 years of age and received CIs at 3 years of age. These results demonstrated a significant effect of early intervention and early cochlear implantation in children with profound hearing loss of 90dB or over.
