The primary purpose of this study is to track patient outcomes for bilateral cochlear implant recipients in a cohort of children, ages 12 to 36 months at time of surgery, who receive two implants in the same operation or in two different surgeries with the initial fitting of the devices separated by no more than six months. Acquisition of auditory milestones and speech recognition skills, which underpin the development of spoken language, will be assessed on a battery of outcome measures typically used to quantify implant benefits. In addition, global quality of life and communicative performance will be assessed by parental proxy. Performance will be tracked after 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of device use. The study also will identify variables that may predict the degree of bilateral implant benefit in young children (e.g., age at implant, pre-implant hearing thresholds, communication mode, family socioeconomic status, post-implant aided thresholds, simultaneous vs. staged placement of devices).
