Deaf with cochlear implants....

Why am I seeing that some CIer's and hearing parents with deaf children stated that their children no longer are deaf, but hearing. Or themselves no longer deaf, but hearing.


Let me tell you something here, Being a hearing person, You don't wear any device to help you hear, with a person who wears a device is still deaf regarding without the CI. (microphone picks up sound which picks up sound from the environment while wearing a CI.) Hearing people don't have micophone to pick up sounds, Why am I getting some of you who said that you/nor your child are no longer deaf but is hearing, when you/nor your child are not hearing. An implant does not restore or create normal hearing, Sure that cochlear implant is very different from a hearing aid, because it's a powerful tool which requires surgical procedure. You cannot say, "My child was deaf, but now is hearing" It supposed to be said "My child was born deaf, But, with CI, my child can pick up sounds, communicate fully with oral communication in person and over the phone"

Just wanna point something out.

Yep, you're right..

The device I use doesn't make me a hearing person.. i just helps me with communicating with 'the other world'.. I'm still hoh or partial deaf..

I did accept who I am finally...so I'm not trying to be a hearing person I just want to communicate better with hearing people using new devices..

if a person hears sounds through a CI then this doesn't mean he/she is a hearing person.. he/she STILL hears MECHANICALLY not NATURALLY..

Electronic devices doesn't restore normal hearing at all.

I'm who I am

ecevit said:

if a person hears sounds through a CI then this doesn't mean he/she is a hearing person.. he/she STILL hears MECHANICALLY not NATURALLY..Electronic devices doesn't restore normal hearing at all.
I'm who I am

Click to expand...

I agree. While I have no personal experience, from what I have heard (no pun intended) for CI'ers and what logic tells me, CI assisted hearing is not like natural hearing. It would be interesting to know if anyone was lead to believe that it would be.

Cheri said:

...........You cannot say, "My child was deaf, but now is hearing" It supposed to be said "My child was born deaf, But, with CI, my child can pick up sounds, communicate fully with oral communication in person and over the phone"......

Click to expand...

Since I am the "owner"of the quote I feel I should response.
Your definition for deaf or hearing is about having mechanical devices that help you to hear. With that in mind, my daugter is deaf.

My definition is about communication, and I wrote that when visual clues are not needed for communication, I defined it as hearing. With that in mind, my daughter can hear.

Of course there is still the philosophical question about when someone is deaf. My daughter grows up with sounds on both ears when she's awake. I could call that hearing. She does not recall deafness 24/7. She's fine when it's off before sleeping, in the shower, even now with 1 processor broken, she''s fine with sounds on only 1 side. But she has the choice to hear. When it falls off, she'll put it back, when I remove it to test it, she'll say "don't touch".

People having CI at later age will have intense recolision of the time of deafness so I can see very well that the consider themselves deaf.

Cloggy said:

My definition is about communication, and I wrote that when visual clues are not needed for communication, I defined it as hearing. With that in mind, my daughter can hear.

Click to expand...

Come back in a decade and tell us how well she's doing, say, in a crowded family dinner, yammering away with cousins left and right. Tell us how she's socializing with her classmates at the school cafeteria, chattering away with two or three people at the same time.

Sure, she may not need visual cues while communicating with her family on a one-on-one basis, or even in small situations, that's a poor definition of 'hearing', IMO. You couldn't be far off the mark.

Cheri said:

Why am I seeing that some CIer's and hearing parents with deaf children stated that their children no longer are deaf, but hearing. Or themselves no longer deaf, but hearing.


Let me tell you something here, Being a hearing person, You don't wear any device to help you hear, with a person who wears a device is still deaf regarding without the CI. (microphone picks up sound which picks up sound from the environment while wearing a CI.) Hearing people don't have micophone to pick up sounds, Why am I getting some of you who said that you/nor your child are no longer deaf but is hearing, when you/nor your child are not hearing. An implant does not restore or create normal hearing, Sure that cochlear implant is very different from a hearing aid, because it's a powerful tool which requires surgical procedure. You cannot say, "My child was deaf, but now is hearing" It supposed to be said "My child was born deaf, But, with CI, my child can pick up sounds, communicate fully with oral communication in person and over the phone"

Just wanna point something out.

Click to expand...

I totally agree with you there sis, cochlear implant doesn't restore hearing but it helps a person hear sounds and conversations better...A cochlear implant is not a cure for deafness and A child or an adult with an implant will still be profoundly deaf when they aren't wearing the implant... When they are wearing the implant, they may be considered hard of hearing or severely deaf in the same way that a person getting benefit from a hearing aid would also still be described as hard of hearing not hearing...

^Angel^ said:

....... a person getting benefit from a hearing aid would also still be described as hard of hearing not hearing...

Click to expand...

Yep,I use a HA but even when I wear my HA I'm still hoh.. HA helps me with decreasing my loss but doesn't restore my 'lost' world .

A couple of points...

True, one is categorically still "deaf" because with the CI turned off one doesn't hear a thing. So, there is no way around being considered other than deaf.

That being said, I can tell you that my CI is way better than my HAs in the past. It does voices superbly (which is what it is supposed to do) and does a great job with all other sounds. In that respect, I'm functionally hearing abeit like somebody who is 90+ percent hearing. All I'm simply saying is that I can function in the hearing world very well with my CI and catch almost all the important things that a hearing person hears. The rest that I don't usually sounds outside the range of the CI (either in sound frequency or in threashold of the sound). In other words, I'm quite aware there are some limitations with it. I focus on what it allows to me to do. Not being able to hear thunder in the far distance like they do or when they hear the pitter-pater of little feet on the roof (due to a squirrel or something similar) is not something I get too excited about nor worry about...it is just irrelevant for normal living and fitting into the hearing world.

Now, I need to clear up what ecevit stated about "mechanical" hearing. All hearing is electrical stimulus regardless how one hears sound. A CI stimulates hearing in precisely the same fashion as normal hearing. It simply bypasses the outer ear and middle ear and goes straight to the inner ear and stimulates the cochlear nerve (just as normal hearing does no more or less). Normal hearing uses some 30,000 nerve points to fire electrical nerve inpulses to the cochlear nerve which transmits it to the brain. A CI does the samething except there are way fewer stimulus points (the scientists have devised intricate mathematical models for hearing and believe me it works pretty good!) and therefore "weirder or robotic sounding" for a first time user until the brain compensates for this situation. The brain is just a phemonenal organ in its ability to take what inputs it gets and use it. I can remember what things sounded like before with a HA and compare it to what things sound like now with CI. It is now pretty much the same but better as I can hear things I couldn't hear before.

I can understand what you are saying, sr171soars that you can function well with your CI in the hearing world, But you will never be equally with a hearing person(s) who does not wear any device to support their hearing. Understood what I'm saying? Like I said, CI is different than hearing aids, But it does not restore or even cured hearing. They can provide a sense of sounds.

Yes, I´m agree with some of posts here that CI help you to hear... It doesn´t mean that CI cure you to hear... You are alway deaf no matter what... It will NEVER cure you to hear...

CI and HA are only ones who helps you to hear.

Perhaps a better definition would be "Natural hearing" vs. "Assisted hearing". I would never compare the two. I don't think that assisted hearing will ever rival natural hearing and depending on the surroundings, the assisted hearing may even become un-usable. I would defer to those with CI's to elaborate.

To the above three recent posts in regards to my CI, I never claimed to have normal hearing nor did I say that it cured me either. I merely point out my CI as a tool especially in communications has been superb and I'm thankful for what it gives me. Er...so what are we discussing here...

Perhaps, this whole thing is more in the realm of semantics which seems to bog everybody down. It really doesn't matter in the scheme of things...it really doesn't. All I care about is that I can communicate easily and have the benefits that most hearing people have (i.e., music, enviromental noises and etc.). I'm not going to quibble whether it is just like normal hearing...I know it is not and it is really irrelevant.

Eyeth said:

Come back in a decade and tell us how well she's doing, say, in a crowded family dinner, yammering away with cousins left and right. Tell us how she's socializing with her classmates at the school cafeteria, chattering away with two or three people at the same time.

Sure, she may not need visual cues while communicating with her family on a one-on-one basis, or even in small situations, that's a poor definition of 'hearing', IMO. You couldn't be far off the mark.

Click to expand...

Here's something for you to think about. In a crowded family type situation or in a noisy mall or party, I have better hearing, with my CI, than my Mother, who CAN HEAR.

I can "yammer with cousins left and right" in a family dinner, or with people in a cafeteria. I'm sure that Cloggy's daughter will be able to as well - in fact she will probably be BETTER than me. CI's aren't ONLY for one-on-one situations.

When I meet people that I haven't met since before I had my CI implanted, I tell them "I can hear now, with my CI" - which is perfectly true. WITH the CI.

The other day I was sitting at my computer reading email while I listened to the news that was playing on the TV across the room, and understanding everything the announcer was saying. THAT is hearing (and I love it!)

sr171soars said:

Perhaps, this whole thing is more in the realm of semantics which seems to bog everybody down. .

Click to expand...

BINGO!!

Nobody is trying to bog everybody down, or bring them down. If you find this thread offensive, just find something else that interesting you, I pointed down the fact and I'm sorry if some of you can't handle facts.

Cheri said:

Nobody is trying to bog everybody down, or bring them down. If you find this thread offensive, just find something else that interesting you, I pointed down the fact and I'm sorry if some of you can't handle facts.

Click to expand...

Sorry Cheri, I was just agreeing with the semantics part, not necessarly the bogging down part.

I agree with Cheri here, no one is bogging anyone down, the point of this thread is some people are saying that once I'm implanted, I'm no longer deaf but hearing, that's just a false statment, no matter whether the implants helps people hear more, but the bottom line is, no matter how much you hear with the implants, you're still deaf or hard of hearing period...

Cheri said:

Nobody is trying to bog everybody down, or bring them down. If you find this thread offensive, just find something else that interesting you, I pointed down the fact and I'm sorry if some of you can't handle facts.

Click to expand...

Excuse me...quite making assumptions what you think I'm saying (in other words quit putting words into my mouth). I agreed with the statement you made and others made about that wearing a HA or a CI doesn't make you hearing. So, where is the disagreement? Where is the bit that implies I believe you (or others) are being offensive? Nowhere did I say any such thing.

You said that and you also said it brings them down. I said nothing of the kind. I merely stated a fact that semantics tends to bog everybody down. I'll translate for you (it is interesting that RD understood what I meant) that it simply means that as follows from wikipedia "In the main, semantics (from the Greek and in greek letters "σημαντικός" or in latin letters semantikós, or "significant meaning," derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term.". Here in this case I meant that I just was saying that how something is interpretated (of some statement) gets taken the wrong way and that is precisely what happened here.

Often these threads go all over the place because confusion exists over what some person stated and what they actually meant. Part of this is how one wrote something and the meaning gets construed one way and somebody else reads it differently and goes somewhere else and then the fireworks start. That is all I was saying and RD agreed. Nothing more nothing less.

sr171soars,

Did I nor not quoted your post? No, I didn't therefore I speaking generally, not directly to you ONLY. Thank-you!

Cheri said:

sr171soars,

Did I nor not quoted your post? No, I didn't therefore I speaking generally, not directly to you ONLY. Thank-you!

Click to expand...

Er...you responded to RD who responded (with one word) to my quote. Ergo, you were responding to me...logically speaking...

Alright, I will accept the peace pipe and let it rest...