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Age-appropriate speech/language outcomes for children with early identified hearing loss are a possibility but not a certainty. Identification of children most likely to achieve optimal outcomes is complicated by the heterogeneity of the children involved in outcome research, who present with a range of malleable (e.g. age of identification and cochlear implantation, type of intervention, communication mode) and non-malleable (e.g. degree of hearing loss) factors. This study considered whether a homogenous cohort of early identified children (≤12months), with all severities of hearing loss and no other concomitant diagnoses could not only significantly outperform a similarly homogenous cohort of children who were later identified (>12months to <5years), but also achieve and maintain age-appropriate speech/language outcomes by 3, 4 and 5years of age.

A mixed prospective/retrospective …