【Abstract] Objective To investigate the influence of age on children's pre-verbal communication skills after cochlear implantation and summarize the development of pre-verbal communication skills in mandarin-speaking children at different implantation age with cochlear implants. Methods We videotaped 36 children, at 0,1,3,6,9，and 12 months after implantation. According to the age of implantation, 36 children were divided into three groups. Group 1 included 13 deaf children, aged 12~24 months, group 2 included 13 deaf children, aged 24~36 months and group 3 included 10 deaf children, aged 36~48 months. All the data was measured using Tait video analysis. Tait video analysis was a measure to assess preverbal communication skills and consist of turn-taking, autonomy, eye contact, and auditory awareness. Results For the three groups' children with cochlear implants, the skills of turntaking and auditory awareness increased significantly (P<0.05). Comparison among three groups, at 6 months after switch-on, the scores of turn-taking of group 1 and group 2 were lower than that of group 3, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). At 6 and 12 months after switch-on, the scores of auditory awareness of group 1 and group 2 were lower than those in group 3, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conversely, the scores of autonomy and eye contact were relatively low and there were no significant differences during the first year after surgery (P>0.05).Conclusion The development of pre-verbal communication skills in Mandarin-speaking children at different implantation age had different regularities. The skills of turn-taking and auditory awareness can be used as the main indicators of preverbal communication skills of Chinese deaf children, and autonomy and eye contact skills can be used as reference indicators.