Visuomotor integration ability of pre-lingually deaf children predicts audiological outcome with a cochlear implant: a first report.

We investigated the predictive relations between pre-implant visuomotor integration ability and subsequent oral speech/language outcomes in prelingually deaf children who use cochlear implants (CIs). Prior to implantation, children were given a task that tested their accuracy in copying geometric forms. Performance on this task predicted speech perception, sentence comprehension, and speech intelligibility outcomes over 3 years of CI use. We conclude that individual differences in visuomotor integration ability are predictive of some audiological outcome measures in deaf children with CIs.