For new hearing parents... A positive story.

greema said:
Your "With a CI the child will still be deaf. What everyone is in favor of is increasing a deaf child's tool box for future self determination." really hit home witih me. When Fragmenter first brought up the CI for our grandson I was straddling a fence wondering which way to go and when he said that his son will STILL be deaf, and that they wanted to give him more TOOLS -- man, that really hit home for me. I really do not understand why the Deaf are so against CI. Jealous? Fear of the unknown? Selfish?

Wow, great discussions I have been seeing and joining in for the past month. I salute those loving parents who are doing what they feel is the best for their children. They are giving their beloved children the WORLD! Hats off to you parents! And please IGNORE those ignoramous ranting people! They will be left spinning their wheels and not going anywhere while your children will have the world by the tail.
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What do you have for breakfast to become so wise? :)
 
How much has your child progressed with having bilateral CI? Just curious.

I'll read the article when I'm not feeling cross-eyed. By the way, I'm neutral about this issue.
 
Miss-Delectable said:
How much has your child progressed with having bilateral CI? Just curious.

I'll read the article when I'm not feeling cross-eyed. By the way, I'm neutral about this issue.
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She's doing great. An indication for it is that she uses less sign now. She understands that she can use her voice.

HAve a look here for some stories..
 
Cloggy said:
She's doing great. An indication for it is that she uses less sign now.
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And that is absolutely great! Leave the choice up to her... our kids expresses themselves orally 75% of the time now. They know that I can't understand them so they sign to me instead.
 
bilateral CI?
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I think that the bilateral CI should be limited. Just b/c it is so expensive, and b/c most people can benifit from more traditional amplification. Also should wait in pediatric cases so that the kid can help choose if they want it.
I disagree with waiting til they are teenagers, but I do think that pediatric cases should wait on a second implant.
 
deafdyke said:
I think that the bilateral CI should be limited. Just b/c it is so expensive, and b/c most people can benifit from more traditional amplification. Also should wait in pediatric cases so that the kid can help choose if they want it.
I disagree with waiting til they are teenagers, but I do think that pediatric cases should wait on a second implant.
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When it's obvious a child cannot hear, is profoundly deaf, then it is a pity that economics would be a dcisive factor.
We choose for Cochlear implant because they would provide the next CI for free. We would have to pay for the operation. Then, just before the operation, the hospital offered both in 1 operation.

We took the offer. 1 operation instead of two is allready an advantage. Also, having heared with 1 ear, the other ear will have to learn from scratch. (We see it with children now hetting the second CI, standard inn Norway)

We see a large benefit in directional hearing and general comprehension. We noticed it when one of the processors broke, and she had only 1 left.
Directional hearing was gone. (I experienced that once when I had a bad ear infection on 1 side... lack of direction was a handicap.... not serious, but annoying)
It also showed another advantage of bi-lateral: she could still hear even with 1 processor defect.

When the CI has to be payed by the user/family themself, then I agree that it is a problem to justify the costs. And in "one of the richest countries in the world" it is a pity that CI is not provided by the state. I guess that for many families even the FIRST CI could be such a financial burden that the decision is NOT to have one.
As I have stated before. Economics should NOT be a factor.
 
Study

Some info here...
Study focuses on cochlear implant placement
Sequential placement of cochlear implants -- electronic devices that can help restore partial hearing to deaf people -- in both a child's ears may help improve speech perception in quiet and noisy settings, a U.S. study finds. The study included 30 children, aged 3 to 13, who received one cochlear implant and then a second in the other ear a minimum of six months later.

The children's speech perception in quiet and in noise was tested at three, six, and 12 months in both unilateral (one ear) and bilateral hearing conditions.

The children's speech perception in quiet and in noise was tested at three, six, and 12 months in both unilateral (one ear) and bilateral hearing conditions.

In quiet conditions, the children acquired speech perception in the second ear within six months, but children younger than age 8 did so more quickly and acquired a higher level of speech perception compared to older children, said researchers at the Dallas Otolaryngology Cochlear Implant Program, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The children's speech perception in noisy conditions was much better when they had two cochlear implants than just one, the researchers added.

"Bilateral sequentially implanted children who are successful users of their first device are able to obtain open set speech discrimination in their second ear, even when receiving their second implant as late as 13 years of age," the researchers wrote. "Speech perception scores in the second ear improve with experience during the first six months of implant use. Scores continue to improve for up to 12 months in younger children. Further experience past six months may not add an additional improvement in older children," they added.

The study was presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Otological Society, in Chicago.

By Robert Preidt
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Hm, interesting. I understand where you're coming from Cloggy.

I see my son's cochlear implant as one hearing aid where he'd be able to have a comfortable conversation with people and enjoy music like he does today.

Different perspectives, same goals :)
 
Directional hearing was gone. (I experienced that once when I had a bad ear infection on 1 side... lack of direction was a handicap.... not serious, but annoying)
It also showed another advantage of bi-lateral: she could still hear even with 1 processor defect.
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True, but directional hearing is very.....not exactly vital. I am aided in both ears, and still can't tell where sound is coming from. That is a good point, but then again, most people, including folks with profound losses can get benifit from more traditional aids. I just think that bilateral CI should be reserved for the absolute worst cases. Unfortunatly, here in the states where CI is covered and hearing aids aren't, you see a lot of people doing things like using really primative hearing aid scores (ie ite aids for more then mild losses) to qualify for CI.
When the CI has to be payed by the user/family themself, then I agree that it is a problem to justify the costs. And in "one of the richest countries in the world" it is a pity that CI is not provided by the state
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Well most of the time, CI is covered by insurance. I definitly think it should be covered.....I just think that qualification should be a lot stricter.
 
I agree with DD about the it not being a vital necessity of having sound directionality. It is a nice to have thing...more than anything else.

The only people I consider absolutely needing bilaterals are those with severe visual impairments...there may be other exceptions.

Me personally...no thanks as one is enough and it does exactly what I need it to do. If they can restore my other ear say fixing the cochlear hairs, then I might hop to it... ;)
 
bilateral hearing aid may not help directional hearing, that's true because hearing aid does not cover full spectrum of sound frequencies due to damages to cilia in cochlea. CI bypass the outer and middle and send sound directly to auditory nerves thus delivering full spectrum of sounds and those implanted bilaterally can discriminate the sound and can tell where it's coming from if trained to do so. It may not help those adult who just got implanted. so that's different things.

I do recall being able to tell where it was coming from when I first worn BTE ages ago only on side and in back. for example if someone is on my left side about 10 feet away I can tell it is on left side because the sound waves hit my head first before it reach my right ear. if in back, I just know it is behind me but can't tell if left or right because they are not on my side just behind. as for front of me. I already "see" before the sound comes.

Since you say you are aided in both ear and still can't tell where. I think that's because you were not trained or your sense of direction hasn't kicked in at all. your sense basically ignore where it is coming from so you end up looking around without "oh wait stop looking and listen" maybe the volume on left aid is higher than right aid and you end up looking in wrong way so never know eh..

my audiogram chart show same loss in both ear and I had bilateral HA and the volume are set to same level. so if my chart is not "mirrored" then I would have to adjust each to match when testing in sound booth.

in case of Lotte, Cloggy's daughter, she had the audie do the NRT without needing Lotte to tell audie where to stop. I think that's why Lotte is doing so well bilaterally and have the ability to use directional hearing ability.

SR17,
I am going for 2nd implant. I have nothing to lose in my other ear. I yet have to start the process for 2nd. soon though..

I know in other thread someone tries to debunk me that she couldn't tell where in the house CI. Well that's because she was not implanted as kid though :D

So...
 
Boult said:
...

SR17,
I am going for 2nd implant. I have nothing to lose in my other ear. I yet have to start the process for 2nd. soon though..

I know in other thread someone tries to debunk me that she couldn't tell where in the house CI. Well that's because she was not implanted as kid though :D

So...
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More power to you! Each to their own.

I never had sound localization and I can't see it matters to me anymore after all these years. When you are close to the 1/2 century mark, you have a different perspective on life... You can look at life either half empty or half full and I reached the point where I'm content with what I have and that is all that matters... :cool2:
 
Boult said:
I am going for 2nd implant. I have nothing to lose in my other ear. I yet have to start the process for 2nd. soon though..
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Wow! Good luck, Boult!
 
sr171soars, thanks!!!! Actually Boult, that's incorrect. I can't localize sound due to the nature of my loss which is a conductive loss. NOBODY with my kind of loss can localize sound.
 
deafdyke said:
sr171soars, thanks!!!! Actually Boult, that's incorrect. I can't localize sound due to the nature of my loss which is a conductive loss. NOBODY with my kind of loss can localize sound.
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Localising where the sound comes from is done due to the timedifference of the soundwave "hitting" the ear/microphone. It has nothing to do with type of hearing-loss.
It might be important that the deafness is equal at both sides but even there the brain will automatically compensate.

But perhaps I am missing something here..

Boult... congratulations on your decision.
Looking at Lotte, the second CI is more than just directional hearing.
I'll find you a presentation explaing how it filters out noise as well..

Cloggy
 
Cloggy said:
Localising where the sound comes from is done due to the timedifference of the soundwave "hitting" the ear/microphone. It has nothing to do with type of hearing-loss.
It might be important that the deafness is equal at both sides but even there the brain will automatically compensate.

But perhaps I am missing something here..

Boult... congratulations on your decision.
Looking at Lotte, the second CI is more than just directional hearing.
I'll find you a presentation explaing how it filters out noise as well..

Cloggy
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Lest you misunderstand me, I'm not against others getting bilaterals. My thing is that the benefits of a second CI comes no where close to what the first one gives you (one reason why I have no interest in it for myself...go through all that for this amount of improvement?!?). Sound localization is a trivial issue in life. Now, I can agree listening with other sounds going on where a second CI could be helpful. But I disagree that would be true for all folks. Listening to somebody with background noise is more of a function how well one's brain can filter such interference. It is easiest for those with normal hearing as there is a incredible dynamic involved with it and how it does what it does. Can't really replicate that with HAs nor even with CIs. Here I am with one ear (first with HA and now with CI) can do very well where there is noise involved. In fact, when the audiologists were testing me, they couldn't understand why I did almost as well with no noise. I assumed that must be that my brain does a superb job filtering out the junk. Hence, my view getting a second CI is so problematical...it may or may not be such a great thing to the person. Some people have enough trouble with just one CI. ;)

I said enough about this subject and I'm letting it rest... :scatter:
 
sr171soars said:
.............
I said enough about this subject and I'm letting it rest... :scatter:
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Wasn't thinking that at all... I understand your reasoning.

About noise, part is focussing by "yourself" but part is the brain that uses the phase-shift of the sound hitting one ear, then the other, to filter out noise.

But I agree with you, the benefit of the first CI is such a huge leap, that the second CI might no seem relevant..

C U

p.s. Found the info... Its powerpoint, a bit technical, but interesting.... (and 3 Mbyte)
 
Thanks, guys and guyettes!! I am finding it all very interesting and it's probably cos I'm in the IT field (but please don't expect me to "know it all")

Cloggy, I'm gonna check out that PP presentation at work (don't have PP at home).

Keep all the discussions coming!
 
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