Finally, a great comparison of what hearing thru a CI is like..

Audiofuzzy

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"We're replacing 16,000 hair cells with 22 electrodes," said Lee. "It's like replacing a full symphony orchestra with an electronic keyboard you picked up at Toys 'R' Us for your kid."

What an excellent comparison.

Here's the whole story.
The St.Paul hospital is located in Vancouver, BC, Canada

A strange, silent world

mark these words, as so many of you born deaf who receive CI late in life bash the CI as unsatisfactorily:

Cochlear implants are ideal for patients who were able to hear previously.
For someone born deaf, who never developed language, outcomes aren't as successful.



This statement, however, overly simplifies the whole truth:

"If a child is born deaf, and they get a cochlear implant, by and large, they will grow up hearing the same as a hearing child," said Westerberg.

"by and large" -- we all know it's not always the case, and how much work it involve to have a child learn to hear thru a CI.

Fuzzy
 
So, we should all rush out and get this for our children?
.... "It's like replacing a full symphony orchestra with an electronic keyboard you picked up at Toys 'R' Us for your kid."
:shock:
 
"We're replacing 16,000 hair cells with 22 electrodes," said Lee. "It's like replacing a full symphony orchestra with an electronic keyboard you picked up at Toys 'R' Us for your kid."

Not quite. It's more like replacing your eyes with the equivalent of old standard definition television. When it was the standard we saw nothing wrong with the screens and fully enjoyed them. We didn't see the 480 lines that made up the screen unless we got close. In the age of HD, we can now recognize the deficiency in quality.. but it does not change that at one point our SD screens were perfectly fine (and some folks have stuck to their old TVs for precisely that reason.)
 
Yeah, it's very important to hear every single drop of pee dropping in the toilet.
 
Not quite. It's more like replacing your eyes with the equivalent of old standard definition television. When it was the standard we saw nothing wrong with the screens and fully enjoyed them. We didn't see the 480 lines that made up the screen unless we got close. In the age of HD, we can now recognize the deficiency in quality.. but it does not change that at one point our SD screens were perfectly fine (and some folks have stuck to their old TVs for precisely that reason.)
You must be too young to remember rabbit ears, ghosting images, rolling horizontal hold, static from electric appliances, etc.

Glad your life is so much better than the deaf world you miraculously avoided. We are better off without you.
 
1) A strange, silent world is just for late deafened people like Mr. Lee. This is Mr. Lee's choice to have a CI so that he can communicate with his hearing son.

2) For someone born deaf, who never developed language, outcomes aren't as successful. That is not true. Problem is surgery because there were complications from surgery that may not help Deaf people who were born deaf. You think us, Deafies, are not successful just because we could not get accommodations in the hearing world. CI is not perfect and not a miracle. So don't go around blaming us for not getting CI.

We are perfectly happy the way we want to use hearing aid and just be able to use ASL. We want to get jobs no matter whether we have hearing aid or CI. All we need is accommodations to help us in the workplace or in mainstream school, even in Deaf schools. When children get old enough to understand about CI, the child will be able to make decision with his or her parents. Parents better not force on the child. No way.

Work, work, work on getting the children to speak and force them to do what the hearing people (parents and mainstream schools) want them to do for them. The children will never have their freedom to be a children. Why parents concentrated on them like that when it comes with speech? They want them to be fully like them and not have to worry about learning ASL to communicate with them. It is still in the old days back then like the 50 and 60. Have respect for the beautiful babies and younger children. They can wait. It is not the end of the world for them to be in silent world.

3) "If a child is born deaf, and they get a cochlear implant, by and large, they will grow up hearing the same as a hearing child," said Westerberg. This is Westerberg's dream as a hearing person to have a child who is born deaf and grow up hearing like them. It does not make it better anyway. It gets worse every time they try to get us to hear like them and to speak like them. We are not like them, for Christ's sake. That is something we all have to learn to live with deafness and live with silence in our world. If you can not accept deafness, then you have a problem with yourself, only you. Not the children, not the whole world where deaf people live.

That is enough of this talk. It is repeating over and over for many, many, many, many and many years of this kind of crap that we have struggle for eons when hearing people don't understand our situation. Get a life and don't worry about us. Geeze.
 
I couldn't imagine why any sane person would pay $40,000 to effectively destroy what little hearing he/she may have and be relegated for life in a world full of chipmunks.
 
I couldn't imagine why any sane person would pay $40,000 to effectively destroy what little hearing he/she may have and be relegated for life in a world full of chipmunks.

Where did you get the idea that it's "a world full of chipmunks?" The people who hear chipmunks, Minnie or Mickey Mouse or whatever hear that at activation or during the early weeks/months. I never even had either at activation. I had everyone in their own voices.

Most people who get a CI wind up with better hearing than they had with a little hearing and a hearing aid.
 
2) For someone born deaf, who never developed language, outcomes aren't as successful. That is not true. Problem is surgery because there were complications from surgery that may not help Deaf people who were born deaf. You think us, Deafies, are not successful just because we could not get accommodations in the hearing world. CI is not perfect and not a miracle. So don't go around blaming us for not getting CI.

Actually, it's very true. It's scientifically true and statistically true. If you don't develop an auditory brain in infancy, you'll never be able to hear, even with stem cell treatment. Its not an ideology. It's plain, simple fact. It's also logical. Hearing is not just the mechanism of the ear, it's the brain as well.

To be clear, I do not blame any Deaf for not getting a CI. I do not recommend it. It's not going to make a difference in terms of access. Appropriate accommodations are the way to go in the hearing world for Deafs.

No, CI's are not perfect, but, yes... most who have lost their hearing and then gain a considerable amount back with a CI would consider it a miracle.
 
Where did you get the idea that it's "a world full of chipmunks?" The people who hear chipmunks, Minnie or Mickey Mouse or whatever hear that at activation or during the early weeks/months. I never even had either at activation. I had everyone in their own voices.

Most people who get a CI wind up with better hearing than they had with a little hearing and a hearing aid.

The idea came from the article;

"We're replacing 16,000 hair cells with 22 electrodes," said Lee. "It's like replacing a full symphony orchestra with an electronic keyboard you picked up at Toys 'R' Us for your kid." Gustin said some patients first hear voices as cartoonish or robotic or as chirps and beeps, while others hear a garbled foreign language. For Lee, it was as if everyone was speaking like Alvin and the Chipmunks. Simple sounds such as knocks and bangs were easier, but voices took effort. Music is still a struggle.

Makes me wonder what a chipmunk sounds like with a CI.
 
The idea came from the article;

"We're replacing 16,000 hair cells with 22 electrodes," said Lee. "It's like replacing a full symphony orchestra with an electronic keyboard you picked up at Toys 'R' Us for your kid." Gustin said some patients first hear voices as cartoonish or robotic or as chirps and beeps, while others hear a garbled foreign language. For Lee, it was as if everyone was speaking like Alvin and the Chipmunks. Simple sounds such as knocks and bangs were easier, but voices took effort. Music is still a struggle.

Makes me wonder what a chipmunk sounds like with a CI.

Chipmunks sound like chipmunks. Lee is describing what his experience was at activation before his brain learned to properly process the stimulation.

Gustin said that at some point Lee's auditory memory kicks in and with practice, begins bridging the new sound and his memory of the sound.
 
So BleedingPurist, you were hiding from the truth. :nono: Impaired brought it out in the light of truth. So that is what is talked about is Mr. Lee who happened to be Late Deafened. Not about Born Deaf. No wonder, I get pissed off at that. Geeze.

Thank you, Impaired. :thumb:

So is AudioFuzzy along with BleedingPurist. SMH
 
So BleedingPurist, you were hiding from the truth. :nono: Impaired brought it out in the light of truth. So that is what is talked about is Mr. Lee who happened to be Late Deafened. Not about Born Deaf. No wonder, I get pissed off at that. Geeze.

Thank you, Impaired. :thumb:

So is AudioFuzzy along with BleedingPurist. SMH

Uh, what?

Let's see..... Impaired quoted part of the article while snipping off the part that clarifies that Mr. Lee is describing his initial activation experience. I added the quote that clarifies what Mr. Lee is talking about and I'm "hiding from the truth?"

It will help to not be reading conspiracy and lies into my posts where none exists. As long as you do that, you are not going to comprehend them. I have no agenda other than sharing my experience and the facts. That may not jibe well with those who prefer tinfoil hats and ideology, but I really don't give a shit.
 
images
 
1) A strange, silent world is just for late deafened people like Mr. Lee. This is Mr. Lee's choice to have a CI so that he can communicate with his hearing son.

2) For someone born deaf, who never developed language, outcomes aren't as successful. That is not true. Problem is surgery because there were complications from surgery that may not help Deaf people who were born deaf. You think us, Deafies, are not successful just because we could not get accommodations in the hearing world. CI is not perfect and not a miracle. So don't go around blaming us for not getting CI.

We are perfectly happy the way we want to use hearing aid and just be able to use ASL. We want to get jobs no matter whether we have hearing aid or CI. All we need is accommodations to help us in the workplace or in mainstream school, even in Deaf schools. When children get old enough to understand about CI, the child will be able to make decision with his or her parents. Parents better not force on the child. No way.

Work, work, work on getting the children to speak and force them to do what the hearing people (parents and mainstream schools) want them to do for them. The children will never have their freedom to be a children. Why parents concentrated on them like that when it comes with speech? They want them to be fully like them and not have to worry about learning ASL to communicate with them. It is still in the old days back then like the 50 and 60. Have respect for the beautiful babies and younger children. They can wait. It is not the end of the world for them to be in silent world.

3) "If a child is born deaf, and they get a cochlear implant, by and large, they will grow up hearing the same as a hearing child," said Westerberg. This is Westerberg's dream as a hearing person to have a child who is born deaf and grow up hearing like them. It does not make it better anyway. It gets worse every time they try to get us to hear like them and to speak like them. We are not like them, for Christ's sake. That is something we all have to learn to live with deafness and live with silence in our world. If you can not accept deafness, then you have a problem with yourself, only you. Not the children, not the whole world where deaf people live.

That is enough of this talk. It is repeating over and over for many, many, many, many and many years of this kind of crap that we have struggle for eons when hearing people don't understand our situation. Get a life and don't worry about us. Geeze.

I don't know why I'm going to bother responding to this since you seem to be ignoring vital information which makes your thinking completely illogical.

The red......You think no one should implant babies, that parent sshould wait until they are old enough to make their own decision. By doing that, they will very likely actually be taking the choice away from their child. As bleeding purist pointed out, the brain has to learn to hear, as evident in the article people born deaf and implanted later have little success. By making them wait you set them up to fail. If they decide later that yes, I do want to hear, the benefits of being implanted then drop astronomically. They'll want to hear, but do so with little success. On the other hand, if they're implanted early, the learning process is more natural, hearing babies have to learn what they're hearing too. If they decide later that they don't want to hear, they prefer silence they can always just not where their processor or they could even have it removed.
 
I don't know why I'm going to bother responding to this since you seem to be ignoring vital information which makes your thinking completely illogical.

The red......You think no one should implant babies, that parent sshould wait until they are old enough to make their own decision. By doing that, they will very likely actually be taking the choice away from their child. As bleeding purist pointed out, the brain has to learn to hear, as evident in the article people born deaf and implanted later have little success. By making them wait you set them up to fail. If they decide later that yes, I do want to hear, the benefits of being implanted then drop astronomically. They'll want to hear, but do so with little success. On the other hand, if they're implanted early, the learning process is more natural, hearing babies have to learn what they're hearing too. If they decide later that they don't want to hear, they prefer silence they can always just not where their processor or they could even have it removed.

Yeah, right (sarcasm). You would not let babies make the choice if the parents want to put the CI on adorable healthy babies and not wait when they get old enough to decide for themselves and have a talk with their parents.

It is never to late to learn things even with CI. For me, I did not learn how to speak until I was 9 years old and I turned out fine but still have difficult trying to make out in school. I was able to read and write well enough but not much better than I am now. That was years ago long before CI came into the picture.

Anyway, you know perfectly well there is complication in the surgery and it can make the deaf go deaf if the surgery is not successful. Anything could happen in the operating rooms. Beside it is not an emergency just to rush to put CI on the small babies. :nono: If the babies are consider deaf, then the parents, the doctors and the hearing authorities like AGBell Organization have to accept them because you can not make them hearing and many other disability kids just like deaf and hard of hearing don't like having parents put them down just to make them suffer more in order to make them normal. Remember that "perfect" parents do have some flaws too. No on is perfect.

I would love to see the children grow up happy and function like any other children and let them enjoy their childhood without making them go through being force to do what the hearing parents want them to be. The children are not like their parents and their siblings. They have a right to be the person in their own body. No one should touch them like this. It is like making the children look like robot or Frankenstein if you put it behind cochlear. Just let them be natural. The hearing parents worry too much and it need to stop as we have struggle for eons. Just leave the children alone until their time to make a decision on their own without forcing.
 
Yeah, right (sarcasm). You would not let babies make the choice if the parents want to put the CI on adorable healthy babies and not wait when they get old enough to decide for themselves and have a talk with their parents.

It is never to late to learn things even with CI. For me, I did not learn how to speak until I was 9 years old and I turned out fine but still have difficult trying to make out in school. I was able to read and write well enough but not much better than I am now. That was years ago long before CI came into the picture.
You don't understand how the brain works.
Anyway, you know perfectly well there is complication in the surgery and it can make the deaf go deaf if the surgery is not successful. Anything could happen in the operating rooms. Beside it is not an emergency just to rush to put CI on the small babies. :nono: If the babies are consider deaf, then the parents, the doctors and the hearing authorities like AGBell Organization have to accept them because you can not make them hearing and many other disability kids just like deaf and hard of hearing don't like having parents put them down just to make them suffer more in order to make them normal. Remember that "perfect" parents do have some flaws too. No on is perfect.
Make the deaf go deaf? Now that would be tragic. Why in the world would you think parents would be "putting them down" and why would they suffer more with a CI, than if they didn't have one? I mean really, explain that. Do you even know any children that have CI's? You seem to be making a lot of assumptions, and most of them are based on prejudices against hearing people. Parents generally hyave their children's best interest at heart, try not thinking about "making" them hear, but they're "allowing" them to hear.

I would love to see the children grow up happy and function like any other children and let them enjoy their childhood without making them go through being force to do what the hearing parents want them to be. The children are not like their parents and their siblings. They have a right to be the person in their own body. No one should touch them like this. It is like making the children look like robot or Frankenstein if you put it behind cochlear. Just let them be natural. The hearing parents worry too much and it need to stop as we have struggle for eons. Just leave the children alone until their time to make a decision on their own without forcing.
You should stop worrying about what other people are doing fortheir children. Because yes, a parent does this for the child, not for them. I have absolutely no idea how you have come to the conclusion that a child with a CI cannot enjoy their childhood. Theyare like they're parents, they're human, and now with a CI they can hear. Even if they didn't have a CI, they'd still be like their parents, we're all human and we all live love and laugh the same.

Next time I see a child in a wheel chair I'm going to have to ask them why they make their kid look like a vehicle. Why don't they let them be batural and drag themselves around on the ground.

The part you don't get, if you wait until they're "old enough" it's too late for it to be anywhere near as effective. If you love the little happy healthy babies so much.....why would you want to make it so much harder for them? and suffer great disappointment? If they did decide they want to hear, only now it's too late, they'll never be able to hear as well as if they had been implanted at a young age.

That makes absolutely no sense to me, and seems cruel.
 
cruel?

how come im an ASL user, and had an awesome childhood, and i have an awesome life.

It seems not cruel for me. I had never have any expereince of suffering when i was growing, for real. I learn a lot from others and i suffer for them because they are the same as I am.


well, i am sorry you have to deal with this kind of childhood or adulthood experience of losing your hearing you have now.
 
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