Speech and language acquisition in young children after cochlear implantation.

Auditory and speech intelligibility scores of 22 prelingually profoundly deaf children who had used cochlear implants for between 1 and 7 years in an intensive auditory/oral educational program greatly exceeded those previously obtained from similar samples of deaf children using hearing aids. Half of the children obtained language quotient scores within the average range for normal-hearing children and the majority obtained reading quotients within 80% of normal levels. Normal levels of language and reading development were associated with early implantation and open set speech perception.