Why do cochlear implants work better for younger children?

I'm currently taking a Special Needs education class and we're studying the deaf and hard of hearing. My textbook doesn't have the reason why they work better it just states that cochlear implants work better for younger children. I'm having trouble finding out why. Does anybody know? Thank you so much! :)

Why do cochlear implants work better for younger children?
That is only partially true. Implants work best in children who are born deaf versus adults who are born deaf. This is because the brain has more plasticity in a child and can change and learn to hear in a different way easier than an adult who was born deaf and gets an implant later in life. Also the area of the brain responsible for hearing is left unstimulated by sound for a long time and in an adult that is born deaf and getting an implant it takes a long time for the information that is given by implant to mean anything to brain.





On the other side - if an adult has hearing through most of their life and goes deaf the implant is even more successful since they have already learned speech and language. In some cases like this an adult can hear 80% of words without lipreading the first day the device is turned on.





Whatever way you go though the implant is a phenomenal device and works wonders for many many people giving them the opportunity to hear things that otherwise they would not have.
Reply:Temporal cortex the hearing center in brain is amenable to change in structure and function in children. That`s why they get good results.
Reply:Simply because everything about the child is growing. The nerves in their ears and their brains. But if someone was born deaf and then at age 30 they wanted a implant then it would not be very successful. At that point in life you stop growing and for the brain to learn something it has never experienced comes difficult to say the least.





Wish I could give a better answer but seems pretty simple to me. It would seem to be the same as a child being able to learn different languages at a young age.





Another point I know someone who went deaf suddenly. They got a implant and could hear fairly well right aways. On my case I always had slight hearing lost but for 15 years I slowly got worst until I got the implant. It is taking me time to "learn" to hear again but I'm getting there. Since I haven't heard well for such a long time it is taking longer to hear better compared to the person who hear only a short amount of time before loosing hearing.
Reply:Its because a child learns allot faster than an adult. As a child, you will be able to hear and learn the spoken language allot easier than if you were an adult. Children will have no problem at all adapting to a life with the implant, but adults will have to learn how to live a whole new way of life.
Reply:The biggest problem with deafness is poor language development if the child becomes deaf before language development or is born deaf. The earlier a deaf child can develop hearing, the better the language skills, including writing skills.


People who become deaf after learning language skills generally retain their written skills, but their speech can become virtually incomprehensible, however there is a wide range of loss of understandability.





I worked on the first intracochlear implants in the early seventies.
Reply:I am a Speech and Hearing Major. Language development vital years occurs before the age of 8. After that language aquistion is very difficult. Add a hearing loss/cochlear implant too that and it makes it very challenging becuase they maybe 10 but their ears would be one.