Annually, more than four out of every thousand newborns or toddlers experience hearing loss. Without prompt diagnosis and intervention—through hearing aids or cochlear implants—these children risk never learning to speak. Delay in treatment can irreversibly affect their language skills, subsequently impacting their educational, professional, and social futures. Their hearing devices need to be appropriately selected and accurately programmed if they are to gain real benefit from them, and this can take many months to achieve. 

 Infants with auditory neuropathy miss out on early intervention all together because the standard assessment technology cannot be relied upon. For them it may take many months or even years until they can receive the right therapy. 

Currently there is no method to automatically program a cochlear implant for an infant, leading to many months of repeated visits to establish the program parameters that best provide hearing for the infant.  

For infants with a severe hearing loss, there is no information to to help determine whether a cochlear implant would be better than a hearing aid until the infant is old enough exhibit a language delay...too late!