In Brief:
Some children who have used cochlear implants for several years continue to have severe language impairments relative to their peers. In this study, we compared the performance of these children, who we term ‘disproportionate language impairment’ (DLI), with a carefully, case-controlled matched sample. Performance of each group on a test battery used to identify specific language impairment (SLI) in normally hearing children revealed significant differences between the DLI and Control children. We suggest that the DLI experienced by some CI using children may be additional to their deafness, reflecting the same, predominantly inherited basis as SLI.
