How can max hearing aid gains ever not be a good thing?

faire_jour said:
I guarentee that if he gets a CI he will be back here doing exactly that. I have certainly never said that CI's work for everyone. I say that they work for the vast majority that choose to get them, and the research backs me up.
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No he won't. You don't have one but you think you know all. The people who actually are using CI's are much more restrained and accurate in what they say.
 
Bottesini said:
No he won't. You don't have one but you think you know all. The people who actually are using CI's are much more restrained and accurate in what they say.
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Tell me what I have done that is dishonest or misleading in any way?
 
Thankful For Sign

I can identify with feeling less anxious and/or frustrated by having an additional way to communicate. I learned to sign almost twenty years ago. Deaf people taught me. I thought learning to sign was very interesting. But, then, I became interested in the people. They eventually shared their "stories" with me-of how they became deaf: birth, sickness, accident, high fever, etc. They trusted me enough to tell me those very special things about themselves. And they gave me a BEAUTIFUL and PRECIOUS gift:Sign Language. In the past year or so, especially in the last several months, Deaf people have been gracious and kind. And there have been those from the Hearing world who have been that way as well. But, I have been able to achieve clear and meaningful communication only through Sign. The sharing of hopes, dreams, feelings, faith, etc. I finally feel alive.
 
defgrl said:
I can identify with feeling less anxious and/or frustrated by having an additional way to communicate. I learned to sign almost twenty years ago. Deaf people taught me. I thought learning to sign was very interesting. But, then, I became interested in the people. They eventually shared their "stories" with me-of how they became deaf: birth, sickness, accident, high fever, etc. They trusted me enough to tell me those very special things about themselves. And they gave me a BEAUTIFUL and PRECIOUS gift:Sign Language. In the past year or so, especially in the last several months, Deaf people have been gracious and kind. And there have been those from the Hearing world who have been that way as well. But, I have been able to achieve clear and meaningful communication only through Sign. The sharing of hopes, dreams, feelings, faith, etc. I finally feel alive.
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What a great post, defgirl! :)
 
faire_jour said:
Sorry, I was trying to make the point that a person yelling is going to sound distorted and that it will be unhelpful, just like turning up hearing aids louder and louder. Sorry that wasn't clear!
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No problem, faire_jour! :ty: for clarifying! :)
 
Hear Again said:
What a great post, defgirl! :)
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I shared my story with a parent this week. She had just found out about her child's severe hearing loss at age 5(!) She asked about CI's, so I did some explaining:

Ok, now the advice. Your child needs language and he needs it NOW! Being 5 years old and unable to communicate is not ok. Also, right now spoken language is not accessible, because he can not hear, maybe later with the CI he will be able to, but right now it isn't. So, the only other option is a visual language. If I was in your position I would start signing ASAP. If your child isn't signing enough, it's because you aren't signing enough. Our kids have to pick up language from us, so we have to put it out there! I am begging you, please, start signing. Everyday pick out 3 more words that you are going to sign today and use them. It is a lot of work to learn ASL, but our kids are worth it! Please, again, please start right now, your child needs language

Ok, now the CI. Yes, implanting this late, especially with a child that has been deaf since birth is very difficult. Statistically speaking, it is unlikely that he will become a oral language user. It is possible, but even if he doesn't, I don't think that is a reason not to implant!!! Even if all it does is give him environmental sounds, or awareness of loud speech (not understanding) that is wonderful!!!!! You can scream if you see a car coming and maybe he'll turn and look or at least stop...GREAT! Well worth it! I love my daughter's CI, and so does she. It has been a great choice for us. In fact, it is the second best thing we ever did for her, and the best was ASL. She has been severely speech delayed since she was 2, but she was never language delayed. She was always able to communicate her needs, wants and feelings to us, even if she couldn't speak, and that is what is important. Yes, the CI has changed her life, but ASL is what saved it.
 
I am profoundly Deaf. This means that the haircells in my cochlea are relatively non-existant and at the very least extremely damaged. Due to that sound is not very clear when I can hear it through my hearing aids. When that sound gets louder, it doesn't get clearer just louder.

I don't understand many sounds. I can hear lots with my hearing aids but I rely on my hearing friends, or on an interpreter to tell me what I am hearing. I don't only mean speech, but environmental sounds too.

So, fine-go for it, max out my hearing aids and so I can hear more things I can't understand. There isn't a point and it is just annoying.
 
faire_jour said:
I shared my story with a parent this week. She had just found out about her child's severe hearing loss at age 5(!) She asked about CI's, so I did some explaining:

Ok, now the advice. Your child needs language and he needs it NOW! Being 5 years old and unable to communicate is not ok. Also, right now spoken language is not accessible, because he can not hear, maybe later with the CI he will be able to, but right now it isn't. So, the only other option is a visual language. If I was in your position I would start signing ASAP. If your child isn't signing enough, it's because you aren't signing enough. Our kids have to pick up language from us, so we have to put it out there! I am begging you, please, start signing. Everyday pick out 3 more words that you are going to sign today and use them. It is a lot of work to learn ASL, but our kids are worth it! Please, again, please start right now, your child needs language

Ok, now the CI. Yes, implanting this late, especially with a child that has been deaf since birth is very difficult. Statistically speaking, it is unlikely that he will become a oral language user. It is possible, but even if he doesn't, I don't think that is a reason not to implant!!! Even if all it does is give him environmental sounds, or awareness of loud speech (not understanding) that is wonderful!!!!! You can scream if you see a car coming and maybe he'll turn and look or at least stop...GREAT! Well worth it! I love my daughter's CI, and so does she. It has been a great choice for us. In fact, it is the second best thing we ever did for her, and the best was ASL. She has been severely speech delayed since she was 2, but she was never language delayed. She was always able to communicate her needs, wants and feelings to us, even if she couldn't speak, and that is what is important. Yes, the CI has changed her life, but ASL is what saved it.
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This is another wonderful post. :) I couldn't agree with you more. Even though I have bilateral CIs, I still keep up my signing skills because my implants do not make me hearing. I'm still deaf/deafblind and need tactile sign as a form of communication -- not to mention a means of communicating with my Deaf and deafblind friends.
 
Hear Again said:
This is another wonderful post. :) I couldn't agree with you more. Even though I have bilateral CIs, I still keep up my signing skills because my implants do not make me hearing. I'm still deaf/deafblind and need tactile sign as a form of communication -- not to mention a means of communicating with my Deaf and deafblind friends.
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This is why I get so upset when people say I'm an audist! I was actually told that I am trying to set Deaf ed back 200 years, by someone on this site! I just don't get it....
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I will address your replies in the order as I read them. I have an appointment with an audiologist on April 6(That's Monday at 2pm) he's not the same one who sold my HAs but he will be able to test my HAs(and possibly some aspects of my hearing) and ill be asking him a bunch of questions, including the questions I made in this post. If any of you have some ideas of what I should ask him, let me know.

If a person can't understand speech regardless, might as well still benefit from hearing more environmental sounds. This is still important to be hearing sounds. I agree that volume control is a must.

I apologize to anyone frustrated with my post. I am only trying to get answers and even made an appointment with another audiologist for more testing and answers. I know each person's hearing is different and I suggest you and your audiologist work together. I will be working with all my audiologists to give what's best for me. My results won't be the same as another person's but it will be the best for me and only me. My audiologist did say my HAs have the potental to further damage my hearing, but he will adjust my HAs in a such way that they will not damage my hearing, yet at the same time give me the best possible hearing. I will let my audie know if I experience any ringing or discomfort. He feels I can be hearing better without any adverse effects. Again, I know each person is different, please see your own audiologist and work with him. Your audiologist and you know best how to let you hear the best possible.

You are right, I do not fully understand distortion and it's one of the questions I will ask my audies. By hearing better, I reconize alot more environmental sounds. I am hearing all kinds of new sounds I never heard before with my old HAs. My speech comphrension has also improved. Men's voice sounds deeper and better. I am able to discriminate an average of 70% of what my dad says without lipreading. I could never have done that with my old HAs cause alot of speech was inaudible. Same with alot of environmental sounds being inaudible.

I would never be happy hearing at only 50db aided, id be missing out on more than 75% of the environmental sounds. Ive turned the volume down on my HAs so I know this. I lose all ability to understand speech and when people talk, it sounds like they are barely even whispering. If 50db was the best I could get with HA, I honestly would take the risks with a CI, the odds are great that itll give me better than 50db threshold.

If I can be aided to 20db, a person only needs to talk a little louder than when talking to a hearing person. Right now a person would need to talk alot louder for me to hear him or her. But still not so loud that the voice starts to distort as well as causing discomfort for the person to be shouting at the top of his or her lungs. With the current gains I have, I can hear up to 80% of what my dad says without reading his lips. I had him test my hearing(at close range, talk louder) and I can differnate "snake" and "snakes" despite my poor aided higher frequency hearing. My audiologist feels ill hear much better when he reprograms my HAs.

john57's reply answers some of my questions. That's true about the dynamic range, doesn't it mostly have to do with how much residual hearing a person has? At 2000Hz with 120db HL and setting the SPL to 125db, that's 5db dynamic range there. My HAs can give up to 70db gain at 2000Hz so at least ill hear down to 50db and use 5:1 compression to "extend" the dynamic range to 25db. How did you handle over 130db SPL without discomfort or pain? How much SPL exactly is "safe" I don't care for high SPLs, I want good thresholds, not to try and exceed my tolerance levels. I am not against CI, but if you check my blog and if my math is correct, I have too much hearing to benefit from today's CI technology.

**********I will address the rest of the posts when I return. Going to CVS then watching a DVD. Thanks again for your replies!**************
 
I would never be happy hearing at only 50db aided, id be missing out on more than 75% of the environmental sounds.

How do you figure that? When I had 60-70 dB aided hearing, I was able to hear alot of environmental sounds.

By the way, if you are able to differentiate between the word "snake" and "snakes" with a profound loss, you are doing considerably better than I was when I had a moderately-severe loss. At that time, I couldn't tell the difference between singular words and plurals because they sounded the same. Even now that I have CIs, it depends on who is talking (i.e. male vs. female voice) whether or not I can make this differentiation.
 
I am not against CI, but if you check my blog and if my math is correct, I have too much hearing to benefit from today's CI technology.

If you can understand 80% of speech in a noisy environment, then yes, you do have too much hearing to benefit from a CI.
 
Hear Again said:
I am not against CI, but if you check my blog and if my math is correct, I have too much hearing to benefit from today's CI technology.

If you can understand 80% of speech in a noisy environment, then yes, you do have too much hearing to benefit from a CI.
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Right. But as far as you unaided audiogram, that piece is a candidate.
 
faire_jour said:
Right. But as far as you unaided audiogram, that piece is a candidate.
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His unaided audiogram doesn't matter. If he understands 80% of speech in a noisy environment with hearing aids, he is not a CI candidate.
 
Hear Again said:
His unaided audiogram doesn't matter. If he understands 80% of speech in a noisy environment with hearing aids, he is not a CI candidate.
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I understand. But on his blog he is talking about how people with his same hearing loss should not be getting CI's. I just wanted to say that another person with his exactly loss, which is clearly a profound loss, who does not hear 80% of speech in noise (which let's face it, I doubt any of them could), could be a candidate.
 
faire_jour said:
I understand. But on his blog he is talking about how people with his same hearing loss should not be getting CI's. I just wanted to say that another person with his exactly loss, which is clearly a profound loss, who does not hear 80% of speech in noise (which let's face it, I doubt any of them could), could be a candidate.
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That makes sense. :ty: for clarifying. :)

I don't want to read deafdude's blog because I'm afraid that it will upset me.
 
faire_jour said:
Because I posted research that shows that kids with CI's in oral school placements do better with speech than kids in TC enviroments.
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Interesting... very interesting. I'll take your word on that, I never really hear you say anything untruthful.

I grew up in a TC environment...however, during that time, CI's were non-existent. It wasn't until I reached HS that there was very few CI users. Now, there's a lot. I visited that school a little while ago, and I met some of the students...one had CI, the other had HA. They never signed. I thought that really ticked me off because I remember we used to sign all the time.

However, as for "speech" issues...you're pretty much right on the money. Out of 10 students in my class, only 3 students could speak very well, 4 can speak okay, but not that great. The last 3 do not take speech classes as their parents don't want them to or the child was more profoundly deaf. (keep in mind that all of this was PRE-CI hype, PRE-digital HA hype).
 
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