The purpose of this study was to determine which acoustic factor of speech production predicted intelligibility in young children with deafness and cochlear implants. Participants were 12 children (mean = 5 years, 4 months) with short implantation durations (mean = 3 years, 3 months), and twenty-eight listeners who judged intelligibility. The following factors were measured: voice onset time (VOT) of /t/ and /d/, the formant frequent ratios of /i/ and /a/, vowel durations of /i/ and /I/, the spectral moment means of /s/ and /[special characters omitted]/, and nasalance. The researcher also evaluated participants' variance of speech production (COV%), and numbers of articulation errors. A multiple regression analysis of the three factors most significant to intelligibility was used to determine the predictor variable. The number of errors accounted for 78% of the variance. The clinical implication of this finding is that the most significant gains in intelligibility may be achieved by development of the most frequently occurring, developmentally appropriate articulation error(s).