adding to this. I lost my hearing at age 2, in 1987. It took quite some time before my parents could find an audiologist that could properly assess my hearing loss levels in such a young child. I was almost 3 when I finally got my first set of hearing aids. There was a lot of driving around to different towns and audiologists/clinics before finally the Audiology Center at the University of Wyoming tested me and determined the severity of my hearing loss. Technology plays a big part in this. Now, technology is readily available for testing and immediate fitting of hearing aids; back then not so. My parents knew I wasn't hearing, my speech was diminishing (I was able to speak in full sentences before becoming ill with meningitis and going deaf from that), and they had a hell of a time finding someone who could help and work with us.
I am going by what teacherofthedeaf said, and say I was peri-lingually deaf. I was in the process of learning language when I went deaf and my language started vanishing after the fact. Peri-lingual makes the most sense for me, and didn't even know this term existed. I knew of pre- and post-, but neither one applies to me. I NEVER considered myself late-deafened, as I feel that term is more for those who grew up with hearing and then became deaf as an adult.