Multicenter study investigating foreign language acquisition at school in children, adolescents, and young adults with uni- or bilateral cochlear implants in the Swiss German population

OBJECTIVES Evaluation of foreign language acquisition at school in cochlear implant patients. STUDY DESIGN Multicenter cohort study. SETTING CI centers. PATIENTS One hundred twenty-five CI users (10-18 yr) in the German-speaking part of Switzerland were enrolled. Demographic data were obtained by means of written questionnaires. German-speaking children with mainstream foreign language tuition (English and/or French) were enrolled for further testing. The control group of normal-hearing individuals was matched on age, class, and number of foreign language lessons attended. RESULTS Overall, 100 questionnaires were returned. The 12 CI users without foreign language learning attended special schools. CI users who attended foreign language classes had better German speech comprehension compared with those without foreign language tuition (89 versus 51%; p