In some cases such as meninigitis where ossification of the ear bones can take place, which would make it difficult and sometimes impossible for the electrodes to be inserted, there are good reasons to have prompt CI surgery.
Also as LTHAdvocate mentions the window of speech development is in the first three years of life and this is a well established observation. After that it closes and those who are implanted in later years struggle much more, although of course there are always exceptions to the rule. I'm not sure how I feel about older children being implanted if they have never heard sound before or haven't developed spoken language already - I wonder if its just setting them up for more struggle especially if the goal is to develop spoken language. I think it's better for them to remain dedicated to ASL if they have already started that.
