The sooner babies get cochlear implants, the better

Babbling sounds with consonant-vowel repetitions, such as 'dada,' are common among infants once they reach 8 months old; however, these sounds are not prevalent among infants who have profound hearing loss, that is, until they receive cochlear implants.

Cochlear implants are an electronic medical device that replaces the function of the damaged inner ear. Unlike hearing aids, which make sounds louder, cochlear implants do the work of damaged parts of the inner ear (cochlea) to provide sound signals to the brain.

"Hearing is a critical aspect of infants' motivation to make early sounds.", said Mary Fagan. The fact that they attend to and learn from their own behaviours, especially in speech, highlights how infants' own experiences help their language, social and cognitive development. 

Now, University of Missouri research shows that babies' repetitive babbles primarily are motivated by infants' ability to hear themselves. Additionally, infants with profound hearing loss, who received cochlear implants to improve their hearing, soon babbled as often as their hearing peers, allowing them to catch up developmentally.

"The research shows that infants are motivated by hearing the sounds they produce, so these sounds are functional in some way.", Mary Fagan said, adding parents who have children with profound hearing loss should be well-informed about cochlear implants before making the decision for their children to get the devices.

The study appears in Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.