PURPOSE: to assess the knowledge that speech therapists in Porto Alegre/RS have about speech therapy care as for the cochlear implant and explain through bibliographic review what the literature proposes as the competence of speech therapists in an interdisciplinary team for the cochlear implant. METHODS: 81 speech therapists working in Porto Alegre, RS, from any field of Speech Therpy, answered a questionnaire consisting of eighteen objective multiple-choice questions about the area(s) where they had worked or were working at the time, if they had been taught in college about speech therapy care as for the cochlear implant, or if they had taken any training program, extension or specialization courses about such device. They were also asked about the definition of cochlear implant, the criteria for prescribing it, the necessary qualification of a speech therapist to work in an interdisciplinary team for the cochlear implant, and what their work would be during the preoperative, perioperative and postoperative periods. RESULTS: the interviewed professionals did not demonstrate adequate knowledge about the speech therapist's work in the cochlear implant team. The questions that accounted for the greatest number of complete or partial mistakes were the ones concerning cochlear implant candidates, implant side, and speech therapy care during preoperative, perioperative and postoperative periods (electrode activation). CONCLUSION: this research allowed us to conclude that the interviewed speech therapists in Porto Alegre did not have an adequate knowledge on speech therapy care in the cochlear implant.