Development in children happens so rapidly. They are like sponges, soaking up all of the available information to them from day 1. When babies are born, they are born with 20 weeks of listening experience while in the womb. When they go through their first year of life, they make connections based on the information their brains receive. Vocabulary development starts to occur with listening experiences. This vocabulary development plays an integral role in spoken language development, overall communication, and academic achievement. Something to keep in mind is that sponges can only soak up what is available to be absorbed. When a child is diagnosed with hearing loss, the brain is not receiving information from the auditory system in the same way that a child with normal hearing would. In other words, the access to language in an auditory format is cut off, and that child’s brain cannot make listening connections, and cannot form vocabulary and spoken language development connections. Because the child is not hearing the information from the world around them, their brain does not have the ability to absorb it and make new connections. Essentially, they are sponges without access to any hearing and cannot soak that up. So, their brain will organize itself around the information it does receive. The longer their brains go without this information, the more difficult it will be to reorganize their brains later. We then start to enter somewhat of a language crisis as we don’t have access to hearing. Waiting makes this journey to language, hearing, vocabulary, and academic achievement harder in the long run. This will also require that more assistive services are required. These services may include longer time in speech and language therapy, delay or lack of academic achievement, use of other communication systems such as sign language, social developmental delays compared to peers with normal hearing or appropriate intervention. 

Putting off the decision to implant your child may offer you some temporary relief from making such an important decision, but delaying surgery and intervention will have serious consequences on your child’s speech and spoken language development and the ripple effects on their education and other development.  Neural plasticity allows a young child with no other medical conditions to adapt to a cochlear implant very early on, but it also limits cochlear implant benefit if delayed, much like how neural plasticity makes it easier for a young child to learn a second language where it is more difficult for adults.  Repeated research shows that the younger a child is implanted the sooner they will achieve speech and language skills that match their typical hearing peers.  Earlier implantation will also allow your child to begin school at typical ages and maximize their educational potential.