COCHLEAR IMPLANTS
New research shows that early cochlear implants can significantly improve an individual’s likelihood of having normal hearing. Of all the new research on cochlear implants, which when implanted in the inner ear can give deaf people complete hearing, the most important finding is probably that early cochlear implants are beneficial. Despite the fact this technology was once shunned by the deaf community, cochlear implants are having such a significant impact.
“It has two ears and it has big feet and little hands and a tail.”
You could not tell 6-year-old Alison Peikin was born hard of hearing. When Alison was four years old, her parents decided that she should get an early cochlear implant. It turns out, according to a new study in the Archives of Otolaryngology, age has a measurable impact. The study shows 43% of children with an early cochlear implant at age two acquired language nearly as well as normal-hearing peers. If implantation was delayed to age 4, only 16% got the same results.
With normal hearing, sound gets funneled into the ear canal and vibrates the eardrum and three tiny bones which then stimulate the inner ear, causing tiny hairs to sway in fluid in response to the sound waves. These hairs then stimulate nerves which transmit sound information to the hearing center in the brain. With hearing loss, often the hairs are destroyed but the nerves are functional.
Cochlear implants use a receptor that picks up the sound, transmits it via radio waves to electrodes in the inner ear. These electrodes directly stimulate the nerves, delivering the sound information to the brain.
Ali’s speech became near perfect. “It is clear in interacting with her that the early cochlear implant has made it much easier for her. Hearing aids have come a long way but early cochlear implants have dramatically changed the potential for a child who is born deaf.” says Dr. Lauri Hanin, the executive director of the League for the Hard of Hearing. She says another study published in the same journal found that grammar is also improved. “One of the most common grammatical markers is the plural S. If you cannot hear it, it is difficult to use it,” remarks Dr. Hanin.
Not surprisingly, it’s the simplest of things the early cochlear implants provide that Alison notices. “I am hearing everything in school and I am hearing all the things that my mom and dad say,” Alison recounts.
Cochlear implants were until recently very controversial in the deaf community. But another study in the same journal shows it’s becoming more accepted. And while these studies were on kids born a few years ago, before universal newborn hearing screening programs, today, because of the screening programs, kids with hearing loss can be identified sooner. That means they can take full advantage of early implantation of cochlear implants.
For more information on hearing loss, click here
http://www.healthnewsconnect.com/page0034.html
For more information on the League for the Hard of Hearing, click here
www.lhh.org
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