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The Food and Drug Administration allows cochlear implants for children beginning at age 12 months. A congenitally deaf child who is going to have a cochlear implant should have the surgery before the age of four years, or earlier if possible. This early implantation gives the child the best chance to learn to use sound while language skills are developing.
Some congenitally or prelinguistically deaf children who receive cochlear implants when they are older do not develop the ability to recognize speech with the implant, and ultimately may reject its use. However, a school-age deaf child who makes maximal use of hearing aids and who already uses spoken language may benefit from a cochlear implant.
Children who once had normal hearing or partial hearing, and then became deaf, may be implanted as soon as it is clear that the child?s hearing is not going to recover and that there is little or no benefit from a hearing aid. A period of observation and training may be advisable after a seemingly total loss of hearing, to observe any recovery and to determine whether a hearing aid will help before the final decision is made to have an implant. Older children and teenagers who lose their hearing should participate in the decision whether to have a cochlear implant.
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