Aural Rehabilitation in Children with Cochlear Implants

The cochlear implant has the potential to give an individual access to the frequencies important to access spoken language. The factors that influence outcome are complex and some factors, such as intelligence, working memory ability, and elements within the auditory periphery, are known to be inherent to the patient and not highly amenable to change. However, several factors that affect performance are controllable and can be modified to improve the likelihood of higher levels of success. Twelve guiding premises underlie the rehabilitation for prelingually deaf children with CIs. These premises are a synthesis of research findings and clinical experience with a broad range of implanted children. This article provides an overview of these points.
Listening and speech skills do not emerge immediately after implants in children. Organized rehabilitation is needed for training the electrical messages to children.