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FDA Approval for Cochlear Implants for Children
Medical technology company MED-EL announced in December that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved expanding the use of its Synchrony cochlear implants to children as young as 7 months who have bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss. The implants were previously indicated for 9 months and older.
FDA Approval for Cochlear implants in children
Medical technology company MED-EL announced in December that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved expanding the use of its Synchrony cochlear implants to children as young as 7 months who have bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss. The implants were previously indicated for 9 months and older.
“We can do this procedure safely in infants that are 7 months of age,” said Dr. Nancy Young, founder and medical director of the cochlear implant program at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, who led MED-EL’s clinical trial.
Access to cochlear implants can make a “huge difference” for infants with hearing loss, Young said. Children who are born without significant hearing in either ear are not as likely to develop spoken language skills.
“If they do develop spoken language, it likely will not be clear nor age-appropriate. And 90% of children born with significant hearing loss in both ears have hearing parents, and they want to communicate with their child, like they communicate with everyone else in their family. But there’s more to having hearing than just speech and language,” Young added.
“It’s important for safety. It connects us with others. It connects us with our environment. It’s constantly giving us really important feedback,” she said. “That’s the whole idea behind early intervention is to change the outcome, and a cochlear implant is one way to do that.”
"This new indication for age at implantation will make a significant difference for our children with bilateral, profound sensorineural hearing loss. Lowering the age from 9 months to 7 months means that children will have even earlier access to sound during this critical period of time when babies are developing the listening skills needed to understand words and begin to babble. The two additional months of sound that the Med-El device will provide will make a huge difference in language, literacy, and academic outcomes. Several Child's Voice families were part of this clinical trial. We saw these children attain language milestones faster than those who were implanted at older ages and were ready to be in the mainstream with same-aged typically hearing children by the time they were kindergarten." - Rollen Cooper, M.S., DT/H, CED, LSLS Cert. AVEd, Director of Clinical Services at Child’s Voice.
Self-Advocacy Skills: Reporting Problems with Hearing Devices
Beyond child's voice
Self-Advocacy Skills: Reporting Problems with Hearing Devices
At Child’s Voice, we consistently model self-advocacy skills for our students. In our Self-Advocacy class, we directly teach specific skills and practice them through role play. Teachers stress the importance of problem-solving situations in which hearing devices (Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants, BAHAs, and remote microphones) stop working. In our P2 classes with our older students, teachers sometime use sabotage to create a situation where a student must use a repair strategy, such as turning off their Roger (FM) microphone to see if the students notice. In those instances, teachers discuss the issue that arose, how to best solve the problem, and the language they could use. But sometimes the best way to learn problem-solving skills and self-advocacy skills is during teachable moments that arise during lessons. These can involve moments when batteries die, students forget do not get connected to the Roger, or when technology does not work as expected.
Recently, I was subbing for one of our teachers who was in an IEP meeting. I was just starting a lesson with the teacher’s two 4-year olds, a boy and a girl. Their hearing devices had been connected to the Roger microphone before I came into the room. I was wearing the Roger microphone and introducing the game we were going to play. The girl looked at me and said, “Colin ear”, pointing to her hearing aid. I could hear Mr. Colin, one of our teaching assistants, talking in her hearing aids. I was so excited that this student knew she was hearing something other than my voice. I clarified, asking, “Can you hear Mr. Colin?” She nodded. I said, “Good job for telling me you couldn’t hear me.” She came over to me so I could connect her and she could hear my voice again. The boy then said, “I want connect” and I connected him as well. I praised them both for asking me for help. It was such a great moment! I was so excited that they recognized there was a problem and told me something was wrong. This is what Child’s Voice teachers do every day for our students – promoting problem solving skills and self-advocacy skills to prepare our students not only for going to their neighborhood schools, but for advocating for themselves throughout their lives.
Celebrate our 30th birthday with us!
Learn more about how we are celebrating Child's Voice's 30th birthday in February 2026!
Celebrate our 30th birthday with us!
We would be honored if you would join us Saturday, February 21, 2026 for our 30th Birthday Gala at the Westin Hotel in Lombard, IL.
Tickets, tables, and sponsorships are still available!
Tickets on sale through January 26 only.
This event will celebrate our 30 year with passed appetizers, an open bar, plated dinner, dessert, live entertainment by Howl at the Moon Dueling Pianos, and feature alumni speakers and videos.
To stay up to date you can visit our website by clicking here.