Auditory and oral language abilities in children with cochlear implants: a case study

The cochlear implant (CI) represents the most important advance in the treatment of individuals with severe to profound bilateral hearing loss who do not benefit from hearing aids. Children who receive the CI during the critical period of neuroplasticity of the auditory system, when combined with speech therapy, have the chance to develop the auditory and linguistic skills similarly to their normal hearing peers. Two cases of implanted children are presented in this study, and one of them was not enrolled in a formal aurioral therapeutic program since the implantation surgery. At the moment of language and auditory assessment, the children were 2 years and 5 months old, and the CI had been used for 11 months. According to the results presented, it was observed that the child enrolled in rehabilitation program had better auditory and language performance when compared to the other child. Despite the remarkable benefits that the CI provides to children with hearing impairment, the device itself only provides the child with the audibility of environmental sounds and speech signal. For the auditory and language development to happen, it is necessary, among other factors, a speech-language intervention, with partnership between professionals and parents.