Cochlear Implants for Children
Boys Town National Research Hospital is known nationwide for serving children with hearing loss and other communication disorders. Our professional staff has extensive training and experience in providing services to babies, toddlers and young children.
For many children with severe or profound hearing loss, hearing aids may not provide adequate benefit even after extensive usage and listening development sessions. When the goal is development of listening and spoken language skills, a cochlear implant for one or both ears may enhance the child’s ability to hear sound and provide more benefit than hearing aids.
Each child presents with a unique background and circumstances that can impact the child’s potential to benefit from a cochlear implant, such as his/her duration and cause of deafness, length of hearing aid use or other amplification, family and educational support, whether the child already has some system of communication in place, and whether the child has other conditions in addition to hearing loss.
When a child is identified as deaf or hard of hearing, the family must decide how to address the child’s fundamental communication needs. Options include:
- Listening and Spoken Language (Oral/Aural Communication)
- Manually coded English (MCE, English-based sign language)
- Simultaneous Communication (combination of sign and spoken/auditory communication)
- American Sign Language (ASL)
Families are welcome to
contact us for more
cochlear implant information for kids.
Kids Cochlear Implant Stories
Emersyn is one of many children who have had success with a cochlear implant as a child. She was diagnosed with profound hearing loss as a baby, but her language and speech thrived after help from Boys Town National Research Hospital.
Watch
more patient videos about hearing and cochlear implants for babies and toddlers.
