Children with significant hearing loss may experience great difficulty developing spoken language and literacy skills to a level commensurate with children of the same age with typical hearing. While studies of children who use cochlear implants show improved spoken language outcomes in some cases, when compared to the same children's earlier use of hearing aids only, many still lag behind children with typical hearing. The current study examines levels of spoken lexical language in preschool children with cochlear implants compared to children with typical hearing, matched for age and gender and with control for nonverbal IQ. Outcomes indicate that preschool children with cochlear implants achieve spoken lexical skills within the average range when compared to children of the same age with typical hearing. Results support the evidence that early cochlear implantation provides good benefit for spoken language outcomes.