Hearing Aids vs. Cochlear Implants

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ryancher

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We took our son to find out about cochlear candidacy when he was 18 months old. They declined Tyler - he has a moderate-severe loss and we were told hearing aids should be enough for him.

We left it but he's now 3 years old and still non-verbal. I know he hears because he responds and he can descrimate sounds. He just doesn't speak.

He bilaterally wears Phonax Maxx right now and in October we are purchasing him Naida's and a FM system.

I wonder if I should request another appointment regarding a cochlear? Is it possible that someone with a moderate/severe hearing loss would require a cochlear vs. hearing aids?

Or should I wait? I'd hate to implant him and destroy his residual hearing if he's just taking a bit longer than normal to speak.

Does this make sense???
 
I understand nothing will make him speak... only himself.

But I want to make sure he has access to all sounds (including speech). And I worry that maybe the hearing aids aren't providing him with this (hence the lack of speech). But I also worry if I choose to implant and destroy his residue hearing what if the ha's were enough and I just tried to rush it...

Does this make sense???

Anyone know the percentage of hoh children becoming oral if they have accessibility to ha's or ci's?
 
Wirelessly posted

He might just be a late talker. My nephew is a little older than that and he's hearing, but he doesn't talk well. He says maybe four words clearly. I know of plenty of hearing boys who talked late too.

My loss as a child used to be moderate-severe, and I was able to hear speech with my HAs. I didn't even have Phonaks, I had some Oticon BTEs. I don't know what his audiogram looks like though.
 
ryancher said:
I understand nothing will make him speak... only himself.

But I want to make sure he has access to all sounds (including speech). And I worry that maybe the hearing aids aren't providing him with this (hence the lack of speech). But I also worry if I choose to implant and destroy his residue hearing what if the ha's were enough and I just tried to rush it...

Does this make sense???

Anyone know the percentage of hoh children becoming oral if they have accessibility to ha's or ci's?
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I was born with a bilateral severe profound deafness and was fitted with HAs all of my life. I have excellent speech skills. However, my brother who was also born with the same degree of hearing loss and was fitted with HAs just like me but he never developed speech skills.

I know many children with CIs who dont have speech skills just like I know many with them who do. Same thing with HA users.
 
Wirelessly posted

my daughter had a moderatly severe loss and was unable to access spoken language and did not develop speech. She was implanted and the change was profound. She now can understand running speech and is learning spoken language through listening. She can pick up language incidently, from tv and overhearing, which was impossible for her with hearing aids.

as for residual hearing, in my view, the hearing wasn't useful to her, so why were we so focused on perserving it? If the peformance with the ci is better than with the ha's what does residual hearing matter?

and just as an aside, my daughter's aural rehab specialist (like an avt but through a university, so she is the professor who teaches grad students) said that with ha's about 20% of deaf kids were able to be oral only, and the other 80% needed asl. Now with ci's it is the oppposite, 80% of kids can successful with listening and spoken language...just what the professional told me, take it or leave it.
 
faire_jour said:
Wirelessly posted

my daughter had a moderatly severe loss and was unable to access spoken language and did not develop speech. She was implanted and the change was profound.
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Forgive me for kind of hijacking here, but have the requirements for CI changed? I always thought you had to have at least a severe loss to get a CI. Was I maybe just misinformed or something?

Totally understand though. Everyone's audiogram is different, even if they have the same loss level.

OP, have they checked what your son can hear aided? Maybe you can see if he can hear speech well enough to actually be able to reproduce it.
 
When I went with Tyler at 18 months, they told me that they usually implant severe/profound. But maybe after a few years with no speech they will look at implanting with a lower loss???

faire_jour... how old is your daughter? Was she born with the loss? When did she get implanted? Did she speak at all with her ha's?

I'm just not sure when to give up with the ha's... when do you know they just aren't working properly. Maybe Tyler is a late talker? Maybe he will start talking at 4 or 5??? His older brother who is hearing didn't start until he was 3. When do you let go of the ha's and move to ci's??? I just keep thinking "maybe tomorrow speech will come".
 
The most important thing here is...is Tyler using ASL?
 
We are teaching him SEE... up until recently he wasn't even interested in that either. But lately he seems interested in trying to copy our hand movements... it's cute to watch! But he's just in the beginning stages.
 
ryancher said:
We are teaching him SEE... up until recently he wasn't even interested in that either. But lately he seems interested in trying to copy our hand movements... it's cute to watch! But he's just in the beginning stages.
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Is he in an early intervention program?
 
Oh yeah... he has LOTS of resources... SLP, Resource, OT, Teacher of the Deaf... we did AVT a few years ago but that wasn't for Tyler - so now we do TC.
 
ryancher said:
When I went with Tyler at 18 months, they told me that they usually implant severe/profound. But maybe after a few years with no speech they will look at implanting with a lower loss???

faire_jour... how old is your daughter? Was she born with the loss? When did she get implanted? Did she speak at all with her ha's?

I'm just not sure when to give up with the ha's... when do you know they just aren't working properly. Maybe Tyler is a late talker? Maybe he will start talking at 4 or 5??? His older brother who is hearing didn't start until he was 3. When do you let go of the ha's and move to ci's??? I just keep thinking "maybe tomorrow speech will come".
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She began losing her hearing at around 15 months old. It was moderate at 18 months but moderatly severe by 3. She is 7 now and bilaterally implanted. Our surgeon will implant if the child has a greater than 70 db average loss and isn't making appropriate progress with spoken language, and your son clearly isn't.

Will he start suddenly speaking....I doubt it. Kids who are early identified and early amplified are usually caught up by age 3, not non-verbal. Clearly what you are currently doing isn't working. He is 3 and doesn't have language, something needs to change.
 
And what would you recommend?

You have to remember we are new to this... when we found out about his hearing loss, we got hearing aids on him when he was 5 months old. We were told ha's were all he would need... and that speech would come. AVT didn't work, so we moved on to SLP.

Now I am at a loss for what to do next... are you suggesting a re-visit to the cochlear unit?

And what happens if he's just slow to talk... like his older brother?
 
Does he have a syndrome? Has he ever been evaluated by a really good speech and language clinican? There ARE syndromes where although the kid has decent hearing, they can't speak. Exactly like.....I'm sure you've heard of kids with CP or other issues who use ASL as a first language, even thou they can hear perfectly. I'd also see if maybe he might have auditory nereopathy or anything else inhibiting his abilty to pick up speech.
 
ryancher said:
And what would you recommend?

You have to remember we are new to this... when we found out about his hearing loss, we got hearing aids on him when he was 5 months old. We were told ha's were all he would need... and that speech would come. AVT didn't work, so we moved on to SLP.

Now I am at a loss for what to do next... are you suggesting a re-visit to the cochlear unit?

And what happens if he's just slow to talk... like his older brother?
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My biggest recommendation would be ramp up your ASL. He needs language and he needs it yesterday. The second thing would be to accept that he may never talk, and if he does, it may never be fluent or his primary language. It is much more important that he have language than that he learn to speak, and since he doesn't seem to be developing spoken language, it needs to be sign. There are long term cognitive effects if a child goes too long without fluent language, and you certainly don't want that. So, seriously, you MUST get language in him.

Then, I think you can get a second opinion on the CI, but there are MANY surgeons who would say no way, so I wouldn't pin your dreams on a CI "fixing" his inability to use spoken language.

You are in the worst "grey area" with hearing loss. Kids who are profound from birth get CI's very quickly and catch up to peers fast, as do kids with mild-moderate losses (with HA's). The kiddos who end up delayed and stuck are those who don't get access with hearing aids but can't get CI's...it stinks...
 
Okay... ramp up your ASL... give him another language... okay... now how do you recommend that? I don't know ASL. I am just learning as I go. I am learning as many signs as I can and then showing him throughout the day. But I don't know ASL. You might as well tell me to teach him Chinese because it's pretty much the same thing. I know how to speak english... that's it. I know maybe 75-100 SEE signs... but that's it. I give him those daily and for the most part he understands them... and he's just starting to try and imitate my hands.

And as for accepting that he will never speak... no can do!
 
deafdyke said:
Does he have a syndrome? Has he ever been evaluated by a really good speech and language clinican? There ARE syndromes where although the kid has decent hearing, they can't speak. Exactly like.....I'm sure you've heard of kids with CP or other issues who use ASL as a first language, even thou they can hear perfectly. I'd also see if maybe he might have auditory nereopathy or anything else inhibiting his abilty to pick up speech.
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What is a speech and language clinican? SLP? Or a Developmental Pediatrician?

No, he hasn't had anything like this done. But I do not believe he has a syndrome.
 
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