Deaf Baby's Reaction To Cochlear Implant

Mysticvean

thanks!

Package

awh thats a beautiful video.

subway

http://www.umm.edu/otolaryngology/cochlear.htm

This is a good read for the basics.

Mysticvean can you elaborate on the alternatives you mention?
What exactly are you opposed to, is it just the surgery?

Sisko

I'm surprised the baby didnt scream in fear:

What do cochlear implants sound like? - 1: speech

dannydiamond

Sisko wrote: »

I'm surprised the baby didnt scream in fear:

What do cochlear implants sound like? - 1: speech

Sounds like the borg.

Resistance is futile.

pablomakaveli

Sisko wrote: »

I'm surprised the baby didnt scream in fear:

What do cochlear implants sound like? - 1: speech

The music one sounds like a train.

Sisko

It does indeed

Earthhorse

That's horrible. Pretty much all music sounds like dance to them.

Access

is there anything better than a smiling baby and a yummy mummy?

Mysticvean

subway wrote: »

http://www.umm.edu/otolaryngology/cochlear.htm

This is a good read for the basics.

Mysticvean can you elaborate on the alternatives you mention?
What exactly are you opposed to, is it just the surgery?

Sorry, didn't see this until today.

I am not opposed to it. (Note i put this in capital letters in a previous post in this thread)

I only point out the sheer sentimentality of people's reactions to people inserting into people's skulls a mechanical device that only produces an approximation of sound, and only works for some.

You see sensationalist reports of this in the press, which often touts this as a cure. It is no such thing.

If you have this implanted, and you 'hear' better as a result, great.

However, if the battery dies, you go back to being deaf again.

As someone with an implant told me, she is always deaf. The implant is only a machine that provides an approximation of sound.

I just don't like the way people go ahh, bless, what a wonderful thing, to cure people of their affliction.

1. It is an affliction for SOME people, but not all. I myself don't view my deafness as an affliction.

2. It is not a cure. It is an advanced technological hearing aid that works as an implant.

Here is the crux:
I am opposed to the false impression being given to people that it is a cure, when it is no such thing.

Beaumont hospital is good in their approach, in explaining that it may or may not work.

Hope I make my stance clear?

subway

Mysticvean wrote: »

I myself don't view my deafness as an affliction.

Hope I make my stance clear?

can you please elaborate on this for me? i dont see how you cant see deafness as not an affliction or disability. i lost 80% movement in my left wrist and i can work around it but i dont tell myself its perfect and i would certainly take any treatment that improves that movement.

if i lost my hearing, fully or partially, i would be first in line for treatment that restores some or any function for me.

please dont take offence at this, but deafness is the only disability where its put forward like a lifestyle choice that has to be defended and i have zero comprehension why.

Mysticvean

subway wrote: »

can you please elaborate on this for me? i dont see how you cant see deafness as not an affliction or disability. i lost 80% movement in my left wrist and i can work around it but i dont tell myself its perfect and i would certainly take any treatment that improves that movement.

if i lost my hearing, fully or partially, i would be first in line for treatment that restores some or any function for me.

please dont take offence at this, but deafness is the only disability where its put forward like a lifestyle choice that has to be defended and i have zero comprehension why.

I'm not taking offence at this at all as I can see why you are baffled.

Let me explain this:
Padraig Pearse apparently said (Though I find it hard to find citations) that with a language comes culture.

If you have a broken wrist, you do not develop a language out of that, but use your own language. English. Dealing with a broken wrist in a world when it is an affliction is a constant reminder of what you can or cannot do. So of course it is an affliction.

If you are Deaf, you use a completely different language that is not based on spoken language. Over the years cultural norms develop associated with the use of signed languages. Let's use Irish sign language, the language used by Deaf people here in Ireland. (Also in no way associated to Gaelic Irish). When you have a group of people communicating away in the same language and within the Deaf community and using the cultural norms, You'll find these people do not feel disabled at all. AT ALL.

I can walk into a shop, and ask for a pint of milk. No problem. I lipread the shop assistant. He hears my voice. It's not perfect, but I can make myself understood.

Disability only comes into it if you are not a member of the Deaf community, and struggle to understand people around you.

The only time I find it an annoyance is when I come across intercoms. That's the ONLY time. How often do I deal with them? Not that much. Once every six months. So it is easy to forget that what you see as your life is viewed as an affliction by others.

It's all about perspective. I'm not really in an auditory world, the way I run my life. So being Deaf in a visual world... that's no problem. Hearing is irrelevant to me.

Make phone calls? Text. Relay service. I do not have to ask anyone to make phone calls for me. i can make my own calls using devices at my disposal.

Talk? I can talk, but not as you do. I sound as if I have a cold. (Or so I was told.) If you do not understand me, I can lipread you, and write back.

Deafness an affliction?
It's only a problem if you are Deaf or hard of hearing in an auditory world, and where being able to hear is very relevant to you.
Most of the time this only affects people who do not understand what the Deaf community has to offer, who never heard of the relay service, and only sees all the negatives and lack the strategies to render hearing irrelevant.

At the end of the day, to be fair to everyone, it's all about perspective.

subway

Thanks for taking the time to write that, very insightful and interesting read

gozunda

Cute baby...could be gas though!

Amber Lamps

Mysticvean wrote: »

....

At the end of the day, to be fair to everyone, it's all about perspective.

Hey thanks a lot for that mysticvean. Its good to get an insight to a community a lot would know little about. I particularly like the view that with language comes culture.
You were saying earlier that when some people get the implant they cannot make sense of what they are hearing. I'm wondering if that is a similar thing to when some blind people are given the ability to see in later life they cannot make sense of what they are seeing. I remember seeing a program about it and some people would be just looking at cracks in walls and wrinkles on peoples faces and such, they were kind of drawn to imperfections if i can remember rightly. Thanks again

DoubleBogey

Amber Lamps wrote: »

Mysticvean wrote: »

....

At the end of the day, to be fair to everyone, it's all about perspective.

Hey thanks a lot for that mysticvean. Its good to get an insight to a community a lot would know little about. I particularly like the view that with language comes culture.
You were saying earlier that when some people get the implant they cannot make sense of what they are hearing. I'm wondering if that is a similar thing to when some blind people are given the ability to see in later life they cannot make sense of what they are seeing. I remember seeing a program about it and some people would be just looking at cracks in walls and wrinkles on peoples faces and such, they were kind of drawn to imperfections if i can remember rightly. Thanks again

That applies to people who have been blind or deaf for years. Their brain has developed and adapted to being blind or deaf and as adults our brains become hard wired and our ability to readapt becomes deminished. The saying that old people are set in their ways is quite literal, the neurological pathways in their brains are set and cannot easily change.

But this is a baby. Its brain is a sponge and will adapt to it's new implant.

Mysticvean

DoubleBogey wrote: »

That applies to people who have been blind or deaf for years. Their brain has developed and adapted to being blind or deaf and as adults our brains become hard wired and our ability to readapt becomes deminished. The saying that old people are set in their ways is quite literal, the neurological pathways in their brains are set and cannot easily change.

But this is a baby. Its brain is a sponge and will adapt to it's new implant.

Bearing in mind the implant is an advanced form of hearing aid, and renders mechanised versions of sound the mind may adapt, but not always, even if exposed to sounds from infant age.

I myself can speak from experience.


I was diagnosed as deaf as an infant and hearing aids were fitted soon after. Yes, I was exposed to sound as an infant. However, they only helped me pick up sounds, and even with years of intensive therapy at school, I still need to lipread.

If you wish to focus on cochlear implants, that's cool. Very young children have been implanted, and still will not learn to hear as you do.

It depends on the individual.

Some will do remarkably well with cochlear implants, and that is brilliant.

Others will not succeed.

It all depends on so many factors. The age at implantation is only one of these factors.

My friend lost her hearing at 14. She got an implant at 16. It did not work for her, even though she had the auditory memories already set. Some years later, as an adult, she tried another implant. It worked this time.

shaydy

Mysticvean wrote: »

My friend lost her hearing at 14. She got an implant at 16. It did not work for her, even though she had the auditory memories already set. Some years later, as an adult, she tried another implant. It worked this time.

That's a very interesting point, do you know what was different about the second implant that worked for her? Perhaps the hearing nerve on the other side was more responsive?

Very interesting thread and your posts are a great read in giving a balanced view

Mars Bar

@Mysticvean. I hope you intend on making yourself comfy over on the Hearing and Deafness forum when it opens in the Soc section. It has been approved and all, just waiting for it to be opened properly.

Mysticvean

http://www.johncradden.ie/2011/09/28/a-steeper-mountain-to-climb/

This link brings you to a very interesting and honest blog on what it is like for the author after being switched on.

A steeper mountain to climb
By ADMIN | Published: SEPTEMBER 28, 2011
Bless me father, for it’s a full week since I last posted. It’s been two weeks since my switch-on and while all is fine, I’m realising I have a bit more of a mountain to climb than I thought in terms of reaching the optimum benefit from this CI. Of course, what everyone has been repeating to me more or less ad nauseum since I got the implant is that it takes time (by everyone I mean my audiologists, other CI implantees, well-informed relatives and my wife Sorcha. Even our four year old Ana chipped in once). But being the impatient person I often am, this reality hadn’t quite sunk in until my first mapping session on Monday 13th, one week after switch-on.

Jacki switched me to two faster programmes than the one I had been on since switch-on the week before. Then afterwards I did the same speech recognition test as I did pre-op, and in which I had only gotten 14%. What did I get now? 20%. While Jacki assured me this was OK, and not to expect too much (it mainly serves as a baseline for future tests, to measure your improvement as the months go on), I was hoping for a bit more, so I was slightly disappointed. Some people seem to do very well straight from the word go, while others can take many more months, even years before they reach a stage where they can get scores of 80pc or higher in the speech recognition test.

It seems hard to believe at this stage that I will reach those kinds of heights, over the last few days of working at my listening rehabilitation (basically someone reading out stuff without me lipreading them and trying to recognise what they say, as well as things like listening to audiobooks), I sense a small improvement in recognising speech. The odd word here and there. Hearing with the implant alone is still hard, but the two together is much easier.

The other thing is that I’ve belated realised I’m hearing those beeps and squeaks that I thought I didn’t comprehend in the hours after my switch-on, but which I now recognise as er… beeps and squeaks. Jacki tells me I probably need some further tweaking to my programmes.

So all in all, no miraculous progress; more of a slow burner. The brain needs time to rewire itself, after all.

While I’m on the subject of rehabilitation, I learnt a while ago that many CI programmes would not have included any aural rehabilitationtraining- at least in the past. In other words, implantees would have gotten the implant, gotten switched on, and then were more or less left alone to figure out how to get the best from the implant. I’ve a strong feeling already that my rehabilitation programme as directed by Lesley at Beaumont Hospital, while it seems a slow, often boring and ponderous business, will be hugely important on my journey back to serviceable hearing.

But in the meantime, everything else is working as it should, which is really reassuring, particularly given the news of the Cochlear (which makes the implant hardware) recall recently. Onwards and upwards.

Mysticvean

mars bar wrote: »

@Mysticvean. I hope you intend on making yourself comfy over on the Hearing and Deafness forum when it opens in the Soc section. It has been approved and all, just waiting for it to be opened properly.

If I have some things to say, I will indeed 'make myself comfy'.

Interesting that the title of this forum is 'hearing and deafness'. Well, I'll wait and post in the appropriate thread. (Briefly, some would rather use the term Deafhood, as opposed to deafness.)

Mysticvean

shaydy wrote: »

That's a very interesting point, do you know what was different about the second implant that worked for her? Perhaps the hearing nerve on the other side was more responsive?

I don't know what the difference is this time. I'll ask her the next time I see her.

Very interesting thread and your posts are a great read in giving a balanced view

thank you.

Swampy

As a newish dad, that is one of the best videos I have ever seen.

Mars Bar

Mysticvean wrote: »

If I have some things to say, I will indeed 'make myself comfy'.

Interesting that the title of this forum is 'hearing and deafness'. Well, I'll wait and post in the appropriate thread. (Briefly, some would rather use the term Deafhood, as opposed to deafness.)

Haha!

I've never heard of the term Deafhood until you mentioned it to be honest.

biko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOo3jzkhYA

I had an implant put in 8 weeks ago called The Esteem Implant by Envoy Medical. I was born deaf and have worn hearing aids from the age of 2, but hearing aids only help so much. I have gotten by this long in life by reading lips. This was taken as they were activating the implant.

Tallon

Beautiful.. Nearly cried

silvervixen84

So nice to watch a moment of pure joy.

shaydy

Great video Biko

BBDBB

just awesome

mattjack

some dust or something in my eyes..great video.