Referral criteria for children 

• Severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears

• No minimum age for referral

• Receive little or no benefit from hearing aids

• < 5 years of age - failure to develop hearing and spoken language

• > 5 years of age - 50% or less open set word recognition

• Aided thresholds outside the speech spectrum at 2000Hz

• No medical contra-indications

• High motivation and appropriate expectations of the family

• Those deafened by meningitis should be referred for assessment as soon as possible as the bony growth can occur quickly in the cochlear

Referral criteria for teenagers and adults

• Severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears

• Hearing loss acquired after learning spoken language

• Limited benefit from hearing aids: 50% or less on sentence recognition tests

• Primary means of communication must be spoken language

• No medical contra-indications

• A desire to be part of the hearing world