Language and academic outcomes of children with cochlear implants in an inclusive setting: Evidence from 18 years of data

Objective: This study examined outcomes in core and pragmatic language, receptive vocabulary, and academic skills in children with cochlear implants (CIs) enrolled in an inclusive educational setting. Methods: Eighty-eight children with CIs were included in the analyses. Data was collected over an 18-year period, at six-month intervals for core language, vocabulary, and pragmatic skills and in kindergarten and second grade for academic skills. Kaplan-Meier analyses were used to estimate the median time to achieve age-appropriate scores. Results: Results indicated the median time to obtain age-appropriate skills for children with CIs enrolled in our program was less than three years for core language and pragmatic skills and less than two years for vocabulary. Over 90% of the sample had academic skills in the average range in both kindergarten and second grade. Discussion: This study shares outcomes of children with CIs who received consistent and intensive transdisciplinary intervention in an inclusive educational setting, revealing the trajectory required to obtain age-appropriate skills, when compared to normative data. Conclusion: Results were favorable, indicating that children with CIs in an inclusive program, with intensive intervention and strong language and social models, can develop skills commensurate with typically developing peers across a variety of core skills.