Cochlear Implants
Parents often wonder if their child would benefit from a cochlear implant. A cochlear implant is an electronic implantable device consisting of internal and external parts. These parts change sound into electrical signals that are carried to the brain by the hearing nerve where they are interpreted as sound. For a complete description of how a cochlear implant works, visit http://www.babyhearing.org/
Cochlear implant candidates meet certain criteria, including getting little or no benefit from hearing aid amplification.
For more information about specific manufacturers please visit the following websites:
Advanced Bionics Corporation - www.cochlearimplant.com
Cochlear Americas - www.cochlear.com
MED-El - http://www.medel.com
As with hearing aid use, there are many ways to maximize the potential benefit offered by cochlear implants. Parents can help their child learn to listen with the cochlear implant by:
- Meeting with other families with children who have hearing loss, and deaf and hard of hearing adults
- Getting information through parent driven, unbiased organizations such as http://www.handsandvoices.org
- Making sure the device is working properly each day before use: batteries charged or replaced, equipment inspected for damage and maintained, daily listening evaluation with device on
- Knowing how to use the device features and speech processor and recognize any malfunction
- Attending regularly scheduled programming appointments to evaluate and adjust the computerized program stored in the speech processor
- Emphasizing and repeating naturally occurring situations where your child experiences anticipating and listening to a variety of sounds, including speech
- Providing opportunities every day for your child to hear meaningful spoken language that is associated with her actions, feelings, and intentions
- Controlling the build up of electrostatic discharge that can interfere with electrical parts of the cochlear implant
