Moreover, binaural hearing abilities are necessary for effective communication in daily listening and learning environments and ultimately for academic success ( Boons et al., 2012 Litovsky & Gordon, 2016 Sarant, Harris, & Bennet, 2015 Sarant, Harris, Bennet, & Bant, 2014).

Binaural hearing abilities are among a number of factors, both intrinsic (i.e., cognitive/learning potential) and extrinsic (i.e., socioeconomic, maternal education, linguistic input) to the child, that contribute to spoken language acquisition. Support for bilateral devices comes from both physiological and behavioral evidence suggesting that bilateral input to the auditory system, as opposed to unilateral input, may prevent bilateral auditory deprivation and ultimately facilitate binaural hearing skills (e.g., localization Bauer, Sharma, Martin, & Dorman, 2006 Gordon, Jiwani, & Papsin, 2013 Litovsky & Gordon, 2016). For young children with severe-to-profound hearing loss (HL), there is a general consensus that maximizing hearing at each ear is best, that is, two ears/devices are better than one.