Children with Cochlear Implants
The controversy over implanting kids is gradually dying
down, but here's some history for those who
are interested.
September 2003 - Here's another report from the SHHH
convention. This one is about the effect
of cochlear implants on children's social and cognitive growth.
October 2004 - CI proponents have long claimed that the earlier a person receives an
implant, the more it will help them. It seems logical to me, and
virtually all studies have verified that theory. Here's
an article that reviews some of that research.
November 2004 - Should
local school districts pay for CI maintenance costs?
April 2005 - It
seems that the Deaf community is becoming ever more accepting of
cochlear implants. Schools for the Deaf, which have long been the
foundation of Deaf culture, are increasingly offering programs for kids
with CIs.
May 2005 - I doubt there are many folks left who question the
premise, but here's additional evidence that implanting
children younger generally provides earlier and better language
development.
December 2005 - Stanford researchers report that
children implanted after the age of 30 months do not develop the ability
to integrate lipreading information with auditory information.
January 2006 -
Age
barriers soften for cochlear implants
February 2006 - South Dakota Pays for Kids' Cochlear
Implants
May 2006 - Playground slide can damage
cochlear implants
May 2006 - Children with cochlear
implants doing well In mainstream classrooms
June 2006 - Children with cochlear implants perform like normal
hearing children
June 2006 - Cochlear implants changing park district's 'camp
sign'
August 2006 - Three month old baby receives cochlear
implant
August 2006 -
Cochlear Implant Resources for Children and Families
August 2006 - Familiar signs ease a child's
transition to the world of hearing
September 2006 - Post-CI Auditory Training Tough for Some Kids
October 2006 - Cochlear Implants And Speech Skills
Following Meningitis
November 2006 - 6-Month-Old
Receives Bilateral Cochlear Implants
November 2006 - Cochlear
Implant Collaborations Aid School Success
December 2006 - Deafness
Debate: Cochlear Implants and Children
December 2006 - Oklahoma
Medicaid Denies Second Implant
January 2007 - Ear
implant success sparks culture war
February 2007 - Study
looks at benefits of 2 cochlear implants in deaf children
March 2007 - Sound or silence? Implants give deaf
people option
June 2007 - Two CIs are Better than
One for Kids
June 2007 -
Canada Not Yet On Board with
Bilateral CIs
July 2007 - Cochlear Announces CI Products for Kids
July 2007 - Educators Guide to Cochlear Implants
September 2007 -
Younger CI Recipients Have Stronger Language Skills
than Hearing Aid Users
September 2007 -
CI Kids Excel in Mainstream Classrooms
September 2007 -
Implant surgery and therapy keep kids on track
November 2007 -
Bill Proposed to Have State Cover Cochlear Implant
Surgery
February 2008 - Swimming with a cochlear implant
April 2008 - Audiologic Contributions to Pediatric
Cochlear Implants
May 2008 - New Children's Book about Cochlear
Implants Now Available
August 2008 - CIs Improve Speech Access for Deaf Kids
August 2008 - Is Implanting Children Earlier Always
Better?
November 2008 - Two New Children's Books About
Cochlear Implants
December 2008 - Hearing aids plus cochlear implants:
Optimizing the bimodal pediatric fitting
January 2009 - One Child's Road to a Second Cochlear
Implant
February 2009 - Children With Cochlear Implants Perceive
Improved Quality Of Life
April 2009 - Teaching a Deaf Child to Hear and Speak
April 2009 - Wisconsin Bill Mandates Insurance Co. CI
Coverage for Kids
June 2009 - Cochlear Implants in Infants and Toddlers:
Are SLPs Ready for This Growing Trend?
July 2009 - Advanced Bionics
Launches New Pediatric Accessories
August 2009 - Cochlear implants open deaf kids' ears to
the world
December 2009 - Parents Struggle with Implant Decision
for Daughter
December 2009 - New Brain Imaging Device May Improve
Babies' CI Evaluations
January 2010 - Music therapy can assist toddlers'
post-CI communication rehabilitation process
February 2010 - Meet Ruby, the youngest baby in the
world to have a cochlear implant
February 2010 - Early CI Improves Kids' Learning
February 2010 - Children with CIs Improve Voice
Control Over Time
February 2010 - Quality of life of kids with CIs
similar to that of hearing peers
March 2010 - Music class may benefit
kids with cochlear implants
April 2010 - Deaf girl, 3, now a chatterbox thanks to
cochlear implant
June 2010 - The Earlier the Better for Cochlear
Implants
July 2010 - Ear Tubes Appear Safe for Children With
Cochlear Implants
July 2010 - Child's socioeconomic status not associated
with access to cochlear implants
July 2010 - 30th Anniversary of First Pediatric
Cochlear Implant
July 2010 - Pediatricians Issue Statement on Kids'
Cochlear Implants
June 2011 - Listening And Hearing Not The Same For
Children With Cochlear Implants
June 2011 - Deaf education evolving with implants
October 2011 - significant language progress for deaf
kids with two cochlear implants
January 2012 - Rate of Cochlear Implant Failure,
Reimplantation Appears to be Low Among Children
February 2012 - Second Cochlear Implant Improves Kids'
Quality Of Life
More on this and related
topics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2006
Editor: South Dakota's Department of Rehabilitation has a program
that provides cochlear implants to children under 5 years of age! Does
your state have such a program?
Here's the press release.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HB 1158 appropriated funds during the 2005 Legislative Session to
provide funding for cochlear implants to children less than 5 years of
age with a severe to profound hearing loss.
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted device that assists an
individual with severe or profound hearing loss to hear sounds.
The Division of Rehabilitation Services, through the Department of
Human Services, administers the Cochlear Implant Program. Funding for
this program is provided through revenue collected from the
telecommunication relay fund for the deaf.
This program is designed to provide financial assistance to an
eligible individual who is uninsured or to help offset the deductible or
coinsurance for an individual with an insurance plan that covers
cochlear implants. The program provides funding for the cost of the
implant surgery for one ear, one implant device, surgeon fee, hospital
fee, the initial mapping and up to a maximum of 12 follow up mappings
within one year post surgery.
For an application or more information regarding the Cochlear Implant
Program, contact Janet Ball at (605) 773-4644 or toll free at (800)
265-9684.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2006
The WRAL
Health Team has been following the Allen family of Wake Forest since 1999.
That's when 7-month-0old Evan Allen was the youngest child in the country
to receive a cochlear implant. All three of the Allen children have
cochlear implants. Their success hasn't come without a lot of work at
school and at home. It is time for a little Spanish at Heritage Elementary
in Wake Forest. Just a few years ago, someone like Evan Allen might
struggle just to speak English. Evan was born deaf like his older sister
Bethany and younger brother Layton. Cochlear implants help each of them
hear and have a chance to learn, speak and play with other children who
hear normally. Their teachers say they fit right in.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hearing
impaired children with cochlear implants produce academic results on a par
with normal hearing children. It is a common perception that the
performance of hearing impaired children in school suffers because of
their hearing loss. Two studies indicate that this does not apply to
children whose hearing loss is treated with cochlear implants.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2006
Rhonan
Scowcroft will soon hear his parents' voices and his sisters' giggles for
the first time after he became the youngest Australian to receive a Cochlear
implant. The 3 month-old boy is also one of the youngest people in the world
to have a bionic ear, which will be switched on by an audiologist in a few
weeks. His mother Tammie said last night after arriving home from the Sydney
Cochlear Implant Centre that Rhonan was 10 hours old when his hearing
problem was picked up through the newborn screening program at Canberra
Hospital. Two subsequent tests confirmed Rhonan was profoundly deaf.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2006
This list
includes a selection of the resources that the Cochlear Implant Education
Center has found useful when working with students and families in our
demonstration schools. This does not represent a complete list of the many
resources that may be available. The absence of a resource on this list does
not indicate that we do not support it; it may never have come our way. We
are always in the process of trying out new things.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2006
Historically, day camps for deaf kids are rather quiet places. When a
soccer goal is scored, for example, the players don't applaud -- they wave
their hands and wiggle their fingers. That's changing, though, as more
deaf and hard of hearing children are being equipped with cochlear
implants, a surgically implanted device that allows them to "hear" through
electrical impulses. When Sarah B. Faber joined the Chicago Park District
nine years ago, only a couple of kids in the district's summer day camp
program for deaf and hard of hearing children had the implants. Today,
about half of the 70 youngsters who attend the three park district summer
camps wear them, said Faber, the district's program specialist for deaf
and hard of hearing.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2006
Last
December, [six-year-old Davin Handy] had cochlear implant surgery. Thanks to
the receiver implanted near his left ear and the components he attaches to
his head, he can now hear most sounds, although in a mechanical, tinny way.
He can also speak with a growing vocabulary. But Davin, who attends a Deaf
and Hard of Hearing kindergarten class at Pasadena Lakes Elementary School,
still does much of his communicating with sign language. Some people
consider that a problem. Davin and his mother consider it the best way to
ease his transition. His goal is to be in a mainstream first-grade class
next year.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2006
For a moment,
Jia Billadeau slumps her head on a table in frustration. It's Monday morning
at St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf, where several days a week the
3-year-old practices hearing and listening. Here, Jia sounds out the long
"oh" of "open" when Shawnda Fuller, her aural rehabilitation audiologist,
opens a toy barn to reveal plush cows. She listens for the word "walk" when
she's asked to move those cows around a child-level table. But sometimes the
sounds are hard, and she's tired. Though Jia's encouraged with smiles and
help at every turn, it's difficult to listen and talk constantly when you've
only been hearing for a few months. Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
November
2006
Children's
Memorial Hospital says it implanted a cochlear implant hearing device into
the youngest child to ever receive one in the state of Illinois. He is
six-month-old Bennet Hass. He received the implants in both ears after
newborn testing revealed a problem. Bennet's hearing loss is the result of
a genetic problem that wasn't discovered in his older brother until he was
15 months old. Now both Bennet and his brother have received the implants.
Bennett's implant was turned on for the first time Wednesday at the news
conference. He initially was alarmed but turned when he heard his daddy
call his name for the very first time. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Parents,
Schools, and Implant Centers Build Winning Partnerships
November
2006
Cochlear
implants (CIs) are one of the most significant technological achievements
of the 20th century that have improved the outcomes for children with
profound hearing loss-and greatly changed the ways professionals provide
medical and educational care to these children. One key component in
successful outcomes is a partnership between parents, educational
professionals, and cochlear implant centers to work together to foster
achievement of the communication goals set for the child by the child's
parents. This article provides answers to questions that parents
frequently ask CI centers about promoting improved communication and
collaboration between the child's school and the implant center. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December
2006
Seven
preschoolers sang along with teacher Garrett Adams as he made a squirrel
puppet bob along with the words. Donning paper headgear and tails turning
them into crows and squirrels, they sang, "Gray squirrel, swish your
bushy tail, wrinkle up your funny nose, hold a nut between your
toes." You could not tell from their voices that they are deaf. They
were in a classroom at Northampton's Clarke School for the Deaf and Center
for Oral Education, where sign language is not on the curriculum.
"Most people think that if you're deaf, then you must sign,"
said the school's director, Dennis B. Gjerdingen. "We don't think our
kids are handicapped or disabled. We think it's an advantage for them to
be able to hear. Call it what you will, they don't have to be deaf,"
said Gjerdingen, who has severe hearing loss at high frequencies. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
Johnson's say when their son Jacob was born, he failed three hearing tests
at the hospital. Doctors diagnosed him as profoundly deaf when he was just
10 days old. In April, Medicaid paid for Jacob to have a cochlear implant
installed in his right ear. Now, he can hear sounds, but his parents say
doctors told them a second implant would give him the chance for full
hearing capacity. Jacob's mother says they were devastated when Medicaid
denied them the second implant. She says he's already made so much
progress with just one. "Oh, he started saying 'mama' about a month
after it was activated and they had me start counting how many words he
was saying," said Jennifer Johnson. "He was saying so many words
that I've lost count, it's over 50."
Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More parents are choosing implants to help deaf
children such as Drake Weland hear. But some deaf leaders say the decision
is a big one and the devices are not for everyone. Drake Weland's parents
are almost certain he would not want to live in silence. Drake was 11
months old when tests showed he was profoundly deaf. A doctor told his
parents that an electronic implant could deliver sounds to his brain and
help him learn to talk. The doctor said the devices, called cochlear
implants, work best in babies - so Drake's parents had the surgery done
right away. Their choice is increasingly common, especially for the 90
percent of deaf babies born to hearing parents. But the practice concerns
some deaf people, who say that parents should wait until children are old
enough to decide for themselves.
Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Editor: Here's more evidence that providing children
with CIs at an early age greatly increases their chance of having normal
language skills.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2007
Children with profound hearing loss who receive
cochlear implants before the age of 6 show significant gains in language
acquisition, and compare favorably with other children who can hear,
according to a new study.
The research, first presented at the American
Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation's Annual Meeting
& OTO EXPO in Washington, DC, indicates that children that receive cochlear
implants scored higher on language assessments test, compared to children
fitted with non-implanted hearing aids.
According to the study, which profiled 36 children
whose average age at implantation was 3 years old, children with profound
hearing loss prior to their development of language benefited from cochlear
implants. Over 50 percent of those studied had language scores similar to
their hearing peer within two years of cochlear implantation.
Cochlear implant technology, which allows for direct
stimulation of the auditory nerve, provides an improved auditory experience
for children with profound hearing loss. Over 20,000 cochlear implants have
been performed in children worldwide over the past two decades.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2007
A beige plastic device the size of a quarter that
peeks from his sandy blond hair is the only visible sign Adam Ballent is
profoundly deaf. He takes notes as his teachers lecture in class at
Naperville North High School. He hollers on the soccer field when his club
team scores. He recites the Boy Scout pledge with other members of his
troop. "Sometimes, when it's really noisy, I can't hear what people are
saying," said Ballent, his words easily understood. "But most of the time, I
can." Ballent never learned sign language. He has no deaf friends. And at
age 16, the sophomore is at the forefront of a wave of deaf children with
cochlear implants who are entering mainstream classrooms across the country,
following a path paved with high hopes and bitter controversy. In 1996,
after major advances in the revolutionary technology -- which stimulates
auditory nerves in the inner ear and costs about $50,000 -- the first "oral
deaf education" school in Illinois opened to teach young children with
cochlear implants how to speak and hear. Since then, Child's Voice, in Wood
Dale, has served more than 130 children, with many graduates going on to
school districts throughout northern Illinois. Several similar programs have
sprung up.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2007
Gibson, Brecken and Andrew were all born with
profound hearing loss. All wear cochlear implants. And thanks to the device,
all are speaking and communicating at an age-appropriate level. "People tell
me these kids are talking all the time," Vaubel said. "And that's the best
compliment I could ever get." Gibson, Brecken and Andrew are part of a small
community of Mankato-area children with cochlear implants. Together the
three attend a twice-weekly preschool taught by Vaubel - along with their
other traditional preschools - where they are trained in language skills. .
. . "Our hope is that by combining programming with the (implant) procedure,
these kids will reach kindergarten and be able to function just like any
other student in the classroom," said John Klaber, Mankato special education
director. "And we think we'll be at the point with all those kids."
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
November 2007
About one year ago, the only thing Troy Nguyen would
say to his school secretary was the word "fish." Now, with the help of a new
hearing device, a formerly shy young boy has turned into a chatterbox.
Nguyen, an eight-year-old from Lowell, was born almost completely deaf and
used a clunky hearing aid that precluded him from playing sports and
participating in OTHER school activities. Last year, just two weeks before
Christmas, Nguyen got the gift of a lifetime, a cochlear implant from the
Boston-based Gift of Hearing Foundation. Now he likes to talk about the Red
Sox and the Patriots, and was excited about his ninja costume this
Halloween. "His vocabulary improves everyday," said Nicole Leitow, his
teacher at the S. Christa McAuliffe Elementary School. "He's very much
getting socially what he's supposed to be getting." Now, Rep. James B.
Eldridge has filed a bill that would increase the amount of health insurance
coverage for children in need of cochlear implants. If passed, operational
costs, post treatment services and the $60,000 device would all be covered
by Massachusetts Medicaid.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2008
You can't swim with a cochlear implant, you say? At
least not with the external part. Well, it turns out that you can if you
seal the external part in a waterproof bag! And here's a video that shows
exactly how one family does it! They also go out of their way to make sure
you understand that this procedure is NOT approved by the CI manufacturers.
But it has worked for them!
Here's the
video!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2008
Twenty-eight years have passed since the first
American child received a cochlear implant in 1980. The implant, the
single-electrode system engineered at the House Ear Institute, also was the
first cochlear implant to undergo U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
clinical trials in adults. The first child to receive an implant in the
United States in 1980 was a 10-year-old boy who was congenitally deaf and
communicated exclusively through sign language. The following year, the
first preschool-age child received an implant-a 3-year-old girl who had been
deaf for six months due to meningitis and whose parents hoped that she would
remain an oral communicator (for the first publications, see Eisenberg &
House, 1982; Eisenberg, Berliner, Thielemeir, Kirk, & Tiber, 1983). The
implantation of children was fraught with controversy and formidable
adversaries. This tumultuous reaction was not surprising, however, because a
similar reaction had occurred earlier with the implantation of adults. U.S.
investigations into cochlear implants for deaf adults were initiated in the
1960s, primarily in California, despite strong disapproval by the scientific
community. The early pioneers were otologists-William F. House (House Ear
Institute), F. Blair Simmons (Stanford University), and Robin Michelson
(University of California, San Francisco). The controversy stemmed from
basic scientists' belief that initial experiments should be carried out on
animals. In contrast, clinical investigators were convinced that early
trials should be conducted with adults who were deaf, and who up until that
time could not be helped by medical intervention. Scientists applied a
yardstick of normal hearing in defining successful cochlear implant
outcomes, but clinical practitioners held the view that enhanced audition
could only be gauged from a perspective of no usable hearing. It is
noteworthy that the clinical perspective has changed over the years as
performance with a cochlear implant has improved. Current studies with
children are, in fact, now using control groups of children with normal
hearing. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2008
A team of researchers found the increased access to
sound that cochlear implants have provided to profoundly deaf children has
allowed them to develop English speech and language skills more successfully
than using hearing aids alone, according to a study listed by the journal
Audiology & Neurotology. The purpose of this study was to determine how well
early post-implant language skills were able to predict later language
ability. Thirty children who received a cochlear implant between the years
1991 and 2000 were study participants. The Reynell Developmental Language
Scales (RDLS) and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF)
were used as language measures. Results revealed that early receptive
language skills as measured using the RDLS were good predictors of later
core language ability assessed by the CELF. Alternatively, early expressive
language skills were not found to be good predictors of later language
performance. The age at which a child received an implant was found to have
a significant impact on the early language measures, but not the later
language measure, or on the ability of the RDLS to predict performance on
the CELF measure.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2008
Results: In general, the developmental trajectories
of children implanted earlier were significantly better than those of
children implanted later. However, the advantage of implanting children
before 1-yr old versus waiting until the child was between 1 and 2 yrs was
small and only was evident in receptive language development, not expressive
language or word recognition development. Age at implantation did not
significantly influence the rate of the word recognition development, but
did influence the rate of both receptive and expressive language
acquisition: children implanted earlier in life had faster rates of spoken
language acquisition than children implanted later in life.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2008
If you see a child tomorrow with a hearing loss in
both ears, will you recommend one hearing aid or two? The obvious answer is
two. You would have a hard time finding a dispensing professional today who
does not agree that the benefits of bilateral hearing aid fitting make it
the standard of care for those with binaural hearing loss. While the
benefits of binaural hearing and the advantage of bilateral fitting are
beyond the scope of this article (e.g., see Litovsky et al.,1 Kochkin2),
these facts are undisputed in hearing healthcare circles. The industry's
confidence in bilateral hearing aids is supported by current trends in
fitting. In 1980 only 27% of hearing aid fittings were bilateral.3 Today, it
is an amazing 86% for those with binaural hearing loss.4 So, what is bimodal
fitting and why should dispensing professionals care? Bimodal fitting means
different stimuli are presented to each ear. For the purposes of this paper,
it means a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the other. But,
you may ask, don't cochlear implant audiologists take care of that? The
answer is no, at least not usually.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2009
If anyone had suggested to me just a few years ago
that my deaf daughter should undergo intricate operations on both ears to
receive cochlear implants, I would have recoiled. Believe me, I wanted
Ruthie to be able to hear -- and speak. Her progressive hearing loss had
been identified when she was 2, by which point she was profoundly deaf and
almost entirely lacking in language. My husband, Aaron, and I felt a decided
sense of urgency to get her communicating. We arranged for Ruthie to have
surgery on her left ear when she was nearly 3. Not that it was an easy
decision. Like any other procedure, cochlear implant surgery carries risks.
What's more, it destroys all residual hearing in the ear, eliminating the
possibility that some yet-to-be-invented technology would one day give our
little girl less-invasive access to hearing. So one surgery, one implant
seemed enough, thank you very much. We'd leave her second ear alone. My
views shifted in the intervening years, and two months ago Ruthie, who is
now 8, underwent surgery again, this time on her right ear. A few weeks
later her new implant was turned on, and she began the laborious and
sometimes funny process of learning to hear all over again.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2009
Research reported in the February 2009 issue of the
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research shows that children who
receive cochlear implants perceive an improved quality of life. The paper,
titled Quality of Life for Children with Cochlear Implants: Perceived
Benefits and Problems and the Perception of Single Words and Emotional
Sounds, is authored by ASHA members, Efrat A. Schorr and Froma P. Roth, with
Nathan A. Fox, all of the University of Maryland, College Park. The study
examined responses to a quality of life questionnaire by 37 congenitally
deaf children with cochlear implants. The results found the children, ages 5
to 14, reported significant improvement in quality of life due to their
cochlear implants, and low levels of concern about typical problems
associated with wearing an implant. Also, age at first use of amplification
was predictive of better quality of life ratings.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2009
Wisconsin could become the first state requiring
private insurance companies to cover cochlear implants for children with
severe hearing problems. The state Legislature passed a bill Thursday
requiring private health insurance plans to cover cochlear implants, hearing
aids and related treatment for those under the age of 18. Gov. Jim Doyle has
promised to sign it into law. While hearing aids help some children with
hearing loss, those with more severe problems may be candidates for cochlear
implants. The devices turn sound into electrical impulses that activate the
hearing nerve, allowing the deaf to hear. Supporters say some families with
deaf children cannot afford to pay for implants that cost $50,000 or more
when excluded by insurance policies. They say getting the devices early is
critical to help children develop their language skills.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2009
In late 1990 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) approved the surgical placement of multi-channel cochlear implants
(CIs) for children with prelingual deafness. At the University of Iowa
Hospitals and Clinics, the first cohort of children who received CIs ranged
in age from 3 to 18 years and were implanted between the late 1980s and
1999. Gradually over the past two decades we have learned that children who
are deaf and who receive CIs achieve higher scores on tests of speech
perception and production than their peers who use hearing aids (Fryauf-Bertschy,
Tyler, Kelsay, & Gantz, 1997; Peng, Spencer, & Tomblin, 2004). Subsequent
studies began tracking the development of language and reading skills and
found similar results (Spencer, Barker, & Tomblin, 2003; Eisenberg, Fink, &
Niparko, 2006). Furthermore, investigations began to indicate that the
younger the child was at implantation, the better the speech and language
outcomes (Tomblin, Barker, Spencer, Zhang, & Gantz 2005).
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2009
Dr. Akira Ishiyama notes Tyler's grimace and says
he's pleased. It means there is no facial nerve damage. Tyler was diagnosed
as deaf six months earlier. Now, on an autumn morning at UCLA's outpatient
surgery center -- after several misdiagnoses, battles with insurance
companies and much worry and waiting -- he is drifting from a cloud of
anesthesia with two cochlear implants nestled in his skull. His parents,
Michael and Marieta, hope he can finally enter the world of those who speak
and hear. One or two of every 1,000 U.S. children are born profoundly deaf,
numbers that have not changed for decades. What is changing -- at an
unprecedented pace -- is the number of those children under 3 who are
receiving cochlear implants, electronic devices that mimic the function of
delicate cells of the inner ear. About 40% of such children now receive a
cochlear implant, up from about 25% five years ago. Medicaid and most
private insurers will pay for at least one implant, and the number of deaf
children who receive one or even two is projected to rise still further.
Cochlear implants have long been endorsed for adults. But studies published
in the last two years have delivered what many experts say is ironclad
evidence that the devices are safe in babies and toddlers and allow most
children to develop spoken language without extensive occupational therapy.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2009
My only thought when my baby was first handed to me
was: 'Please tell me my child can hear.' I've been profoundly deaf from
birth and even though I can speak clearly, I rely on lip-reading to
understand. I'm the only deaf person in my family and before Lauren was born
I had tests done with a top geneticist who told me I wasn't a carrier of any
known deafness gene. He gave me just a 2-5 per cent chance of having a deaf
baby, just marginally higher than a hearing mother. So when Lauren failed
the newborn hearing test at just 24 hours old, I was devastated. All my
anxieties of being cut-off and bullied as a child came flooding back. I was
scared of what lay ahead for Lauren, but I was also distraught for myself.
My childhood and early adult life had been a constant fight to fit in. I'd
managed to put all that behind me and was happily married with a successful
career as a TV producer and a fledgling acting career with a role in Holby
City. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2010
Born profoundly deaf in both ears, Ruby Hallows
could not hear anything until last November, when, at nine months old, she
became the youngest baby in the world to have cochlear implants. Now, like
most one-year-olds, she reacts to noise and loves musical toys. She will
almost definitely develop spoken language in line with her peers and go on
to attend a mainstream school. . . . Critics have raised ethical concerns
about performing such an invasive procedure on a baby, yet Mr John Graham,
consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Royal National Throat, Nose
and Ear Hospital, London, says it is essential to operate as soon as
possible. 'The brain's capacity to learn starts to decay almost from
birth,' he says. 'The ideal age is before the child is two years old. If the
parts of the brain that deal with hearing are not stimulated before a child
is four, then speech and hearing will never develop completely.'
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2010
A girl who was born deaf is now speaking and has
advanced language skills for her age after a life-changing operation. Ava
Pearson was nine months old when she became one of the youngest people in
Britain to have cochlear implants. Now aged three, she has language skills
months ahead of other children her age and is doing well at nursery school.
Her mother, Lauren, 31, from London, said: 'It was amazing to see her
reacting to noise. I was so excited and felt such a sense of relief. Her
hearing is improving every day and she has become such a chatterbox.'
Full Story
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July 2010
A history of ear tubes to treat infections does not
appear to adversely affect children with cochlear implants, regardless of
whether the tubes are left in place or removed before implantation,
according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head &
Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Newborn hearing screening
is now widespread and cochlear implants to reverse hearing loss have been
shown to be successful in children younger than age 2, according to
background information in the article. As a result, children are
increasingly identified as candidates for cochlear implants near the peak
age for developing acute otitis media, or middle ear infection. Myringotomy
tubes, placed in the middle ear after a small incision is made in the
eardrum, have been a mainstay of treatment of otitis media for children with
normal hearing. However, they are avoided by some surgeons for children who
have or are candidates for cochlear implants because of concerns about
increased complications.
Full Story
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July 2010
Poor children with hearing loss appear to have equal
access to cochlear implantation, but have more complications and worse
compliance with follow-up regimens than children with higher socioeconomic
status, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of
Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.
Full
Story
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July 2010
An up-to-date vaccination record should be a
prerequisite for cochlear implants in children with profound hearing loss --
given their heightened risk for otitis media and meningitis, according to a
policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Ideally, a
child should have all recommended vaccinations at least two weeks prior to
surgery to insert cochlear implants, the AAP stated in the August issue of
Pediatrics. Immunizations should include all age-appropriate doses of
pneumococcal conjugate (PCV) and Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate
vaccines (Hib), as well as appropriate annual immunization against
influenza, according to the statement.
Full Story
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June 2011
The children are busy making a paper circus train,
describing their favorite animals as they go. One boy announces he likes
elephants; a classmate prefers snow leopards, explaining that they are
"white as snow." It could be a preschool class anywhere, except that the
group is unusually small, with just five children, and all are wearing
sophisticated electronic devices in their ears. These children, and others
at the Clarke School for Hearing and Speech in Bryn Mawr, are all deaf or
hard of hearing. Yet instead of using American Sign Language, all have
learned to speak, in most cases aided by devices called cochlear implants.
All are headed to mainstream kindergarten.
Full Story
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January 2012
Overall, the rate of reimplantation of cochlear
implants due to device failure appears to be low among children who were
treated at a pediatric tertiary care clinic in Canada, however children who
develop hearing loss due the bacterial meningitis prior to implantation
appear to be at an increased risk of device failure, according to a report
in the December issue of Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery,
one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Full Story
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February 2012
A report published Online First by theArchives of
Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery shows evidence to suggest that children
receiving cochlear implants in separate, sequential surgeries, see overall
improvements in their quality of life. The study, led by Marloes Sparreboom,
M.A., Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands,
stresses the importance of collecting information concerning the quality of
life of children receiving cochlear implantations, given the lack of
previous research on the matter. Countless other studies solely look at
speech perception and sound localization, with clinical settings that do not
accurately represent a typical everyday environment. The majority of studies
indicate that children with bilateral cochlear implants, as opposed to
having just one, have better speech perception in noise and sound
localization.
Full Story
