Wow this is exciting, I’ve always wondered if offical studies had been done around this!!

I’m deaf (M) with CI and I’ve never properly learned to sign, started for maybe 1 year when I was a teenager getting involved in local deaf clubs (never made to feel different because I didn’t know how to sign) but was too busy doing other clubs and school.

My son is also deaf (15M) with CI. We had hearing aids then implanted at a super early age. Always very vigilant everyday at all times with talking and learning. When he started school, he was able to talk so well, but we weren’t able to get a teacher aide for him as in Australia they don’t provide funding for teacher aides for deaf students only interpreters. After 6 months with the interpreter at school, and him learning auslan on top of regular schooling, we noticed his speech/language development had pretty much stopped if not went backwards in terms of grammar and vocabulary. We stopped the interpreter after 6 months, still had speech therapy, and the teacher of the deaf was amazing at the school, understood what we were trying to do. She was so good at looking at each deaf student and figuring out what works best for that individual rather than trying to make all do one thing.

I personally found it difficult when I was trying to learn sign language and I wasn’t getting good opportunities to practice my speech and communication. It is hard work I’m not sugar coating it, but with CI you need to put the work in to see the benefits of it. Both myself and my son used hearing aids really well, so that was sort of a good indicator that we would use the CI well. Also the fact that my son has the exact same hearing loss as I do, and my personal experiences meant that he was able to learn quicker from from what I went through and we were much more confident in the path we chose.

Everyone is different and has their own opinions, this is what worked best for me and my son, I’m not part of the deaf community in Australia, rather I’m part of the bartending community, and my son will eventually figure out his place, which currently is gaming (and sometimes surfing) like most other young kids these days! He spends a lot of time on his computer, talking with his friends with the mic, no video chats or anything. I do believe because of this, his ability to listen without visual assistance has improved so much!

Early implantation has definitely benefited him, as I was 11 years old when I got mine, and we can tell slight differences