The Development of Numerical Intelligence in Preschool Children with Cochlear Implants: A Hypothesis on Mathematical, Verbal, and Non-Verbal Cognitive Competence

This study synthesizes some preliminary observations made by the clinicians of the Audiology and Phoniatrics Department of Padua-Treviso University on the development of numerical intelligence in deaf children who received cochlear implantation at an early age. This study collected data from clinical observation and standardized instruments, such as Leiter-R and PRCR-Numeri, on a group of 11 preschool deaf children. These data were then compared with those obtained from language performances and audiometric examinations. It is generally recognized that a normal cognitive profile corresponds to scaled scores between 85 and 122. Specifically, the Numerical Intelligence competence is lower in deaf children than in normally hearing children. In particular, the most obvious difference is in the “number comparison” performance, which involves mental operations. In our study, we observed a meaningful connection between Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and the Fluid Reasoning (Fr) score, that is, the ability to solve non-verbal problems independent of previous learning. These results appear to demonstrate a pronounced connectivity of the subcomponents which, taken together, produce visual-spatial functionality.