Executive Functioning Deficits in Children with Cochlear Implants

Permanent hearing loss is not uncommon, with an estimated prevalence of 1.5 per 1000 births. Early detection and intervention is important to achieve the best communication, language, socio-emotional, cognitive, and motor developmental skills. Although cochlear implants make it possible for some children with profound sensorineural hearing loss to achieve spoken language skills, children with cochlear implants can experience long-term effects on neurocognitive processes, particularly executive functioning skills. Researchers prospectively examined the risk for such deficits in 73 children (age range, 3–17 years) who had received cochlear implants before age 7 years. Children were excluded if they had other development, cognitive, or neurolo…