Re: mod/severe - CI?

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 7/10/2004 5:35:41 AM Eastern Standard Time,

Listen-Up writes:

Has anyone else implanted a child with better than a profound loss?

My daughter has a severe to profound loss in one ear and moderately

severe loss in the other. An implant center evaluated her and said

she was audiologically a candidate; that they could implant her

worse ear. We just need to decide if she would do better with the

implant than her hearing aids.

I can share a little of our experience. When was diagnosed at 2 months

they said he had a severe/profound loss with the ABR results. Follow up ABR

told us profound. He had his hearing aids at 3.5 months. I believe the

professionals we were working with believed he was a CI candidate from the

beginning. We weren't in any rush of course because we were only just beginning

to

learn what our options were. It was so difficult for us to figure out what

could or could not hear with his aids because of he was so young! As he got

older we continued to question his language development. We knew he was

getting some benefit with his aids but just didn't know how much was getting

through. He had a lot of receptive language. We implanted him at 20 months to

give

him more access to sound since we felt he was capable of being oral. At that

time he was considered to have a severe/profound loss in both ears. He has

done very well with his CI. I have no idea how he would be languagewise today

if we continued with the hearing aids. I've seen so many " successful " kids

using all different communication modes with different hearing losses so I know

it greatly depends on the support system they have.

is now wearing the original analog hearing aid he first got at 3 months

(phonak sona forte) in his unimplanted ear. I know he does receive sound

through it but I don't really know how much he benefits from it. He seems to be

getting used to wearing it but I don't believe he prefers it. He takes it out

a couple times a day and sometimes doesn't want it in. He definately prefers

his CI. If I were to put his hearing aid in and not turn it on he would not

care or say anything. However he would tell me immediately if his " ear " or CI

processor was not turned on. As he gets older I believe we will get more

accurate result of his hearing loss and I suspect that it will be more like

moderate/severe than the original profound diagnosis.

's articulation is getting better and better everyday. His sentences are

expanding and it's exciting to hear him use new words everyday. I think the

CI has made it not as difficult to listen compared to his hearing aids. And

he can hear many more speech sounds than he could with his hearing aids so he

doesn't have to fill in the gaps. Also because he can " hear " more sounds he can

reproduce them more easily. I think this helps with the articulation issues

and the voice quality.

It's great that your daughter has made wonderful progress with her aids. I

know it's a difficult decision to make. I wish you the best.

K

's mom, 3.8 years, Medel CI 7/30/02