Effects of Early Auditory Deprivation on Working Memory and Reasoning Abilities in Verbal and Visuospatial Domains for Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients.

The sample was small, so the study could not examine the separate contributions of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory in detail. All children with cochlear implants used spoken language and had no reported cognitive delays, so the findings may not apply to children who use sign language or have other developmental delays. The cochlear implant and hearing groups differed in maternal education, and maternal education was associated with vocabulary, so social language input may still influence the verbal results. Some younger children performed poorly on complex verbal working memory, so floor effects may have obscured relationships for that task. The visuo-spatial tasks were designed to minimize verbal labeling, so results may not apply to visuo-spatial tasks that allow verbal recoding.

The supplied publication types list NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support; no author conflict-of-interest declaration is included.

Do not read the poorer verbal working memory as evidence that cochlear implants cause a general cognitive deficit. The children with implants performed similarly to hearing peers on visuo-spatial working memory and Matrix Reasoning, and the sample was small.