Abstract
The authors conducted a comparative study of vocabulary capacity (VA) in nine congenitally deaf children treated by different methods of compensating hearing and wearied age. The conclusions were as follows. 1) Group A (three cases with a cochlear implant [C. I.] since age of 2 years) had VA abilities appropriate for their chronological age (C. A.) at 3 years 5 months of age. At that time the mother-child relationship stabilized. 2) Group B (three cases with C. I. since 6 years 6 monts of age and a hearing aid [H. A.] since 2 years 1 month) had VA abilities appropriate for C. A. at 6 years 3 months of age with a H. A.. The mothers were emotionally unstable, before the C. I. operation, but the mother-child relationship stabilized after the operation. 3) Group C (three children with H. A. since 1 years 3 months of age) had VA abilities appropriate for C. A. at 5 years 10 months of age, at the time their mothers were emotionally unstable. 4) If conditions for learning languate and speech are met in 1 or 2 years, up to the school age (for 6 years), deaf children had VA abilities appropriate for C. A., and there was no problem wearing the C. I. at 6 years of age.
