Cochlear Implants: What Are They and Why the Debate?
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device designed to send electronic impulses to the brain, simulating sound for a person with profound hearing loss or deafness. The external components consist of a transmitter (held to the side of the head by a magnet under the skin), and a microphone and sound processor worn behind the ear. (In some models, the sound processor is worn as a small pack connected to clothing.) The sound processor communicates with a receiver inserted under the skin. The receiver sends electrodes through the auditory nerve via the cochlea and to the brain.
As a result of its invention, signed language and lip reading are no longer a deaf person's only options. For the parents of a profoundly deaf child, a gadget replicating the sense of hearing seems to rival even divine healing. Before deciding to get a cochlear implant, parents and candidates should be aware of its implications.
Things to know about cochlear implants:
Early intervention greatly improves the chances of success; the earlier a child can experience language (spoken language, in this case), the more likely he or she will acquire and develop it successfully.
Getting a cochlear implant is a permanent procedure. Once a person decides to go through with the surgery, any residual hearing he or she had to begin with is lost.
Cochlear implants do not "cure" deafness. The electronic impulses sent through the auditory nerve to the brain only simulate hearing. These simulations can eventually be interpreted as voices and environmental sounds. (To experience what a person with a cochlear implant hears, click on the last link under additional resources.)
Patients cannot get MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) because most cochlear implants today are made of metal.
Therapy is necessary to help a person with a newly acquired cochlear implant to sort and interpret the new sounds. Therapy also teaches the person to use his or her own voice to produce spoken words.
Why are some people against implanting young deaf children?
After the introduction of the cochlear implant, some members of the Deaf-world would see (and continue to see) cochlear implants as a threat to their culture. The ASL (American Sign Language) sign for COCHLEAR-IMPLANT itself is two fingers, bent into a claw and positioned behind the ear. In its first stages of development, cochlear implants were seen (especially by the Deaf-world) as little more than experimental procedures meant for adults who lost their hearing later in life. However, as cochlear implants became more commonly used in small children, the Deaf-world felt not only threatened, but all out assaulted.
Imagine doctors, professionals, friends, and family suggesting that you have your child implanted with night vision. Ridiculous! You've lived your whole life without the ability to see in the dark and have a successful, fruitful existence. Of course, there are times when night vision would be convenient - beneficial even - but you simply don't need it. Why would your child? When a member of the Deaf-world is confronted with the notion of implanting his or her child with a device that simulates hearing, the suggestion can sound just as absurd.
Members of the Deaf-world do not see their deafness as a handicap. Signed language is a cherished source of pride in Deaf society. Many have never experienced hearing, so they live and thrive without it. Deafness is a gift, not a disability. A deaf child is welcomed, not mourned.
Today, the position of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is that "cochlear implants are not appropriate for all deaf and hard of hearing children and adults," and that, "cochlear implantation is a technology that represents a tool to be used in some forms of communication, and not a cure for deafness."
The decision to implant a child or oneself should be approached carefully. Research all options regarding education and language for a deaf child - implanted or not. Speak to families who have a child or children with a cochlear implant. Speak to members of the local deaf community. Talk to professionals who will work with you and your child before, during, and after the cochlear implant surgery. The broader your knowledge is regarding this subject, the more likely you and your child will cope and benefit from such a procedure.
Published by Joanna Burk
I work as a speech pathologist asst in Texas. This is my first "real" job, although I'm not sure when I'll feel like a real grown up. So far, the piece I like the most is "Eighteen Minutes." View profile
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17 Comments
Post a CommentThat being said, I urge anyone considering a cochlear implant for his or her young child to seriously speak to members of the Deaf community. As Mark said earlier, it could be likely that you will get a "sugar-coated" view of a cochlear implant from those who sale them, despite any good intentions.
Yet despite the fact that these surgeries were the choices made by her parents and prevented "normal" playtime did not prevent her from having a "normal" life.
I say all this not because I necessarily disagree with you, because on most points I do not disagree. But I do encourage you to consider the issue not only from the point of view of a member of the Deaf community, but of a member of the hearing community as well.
Any surgery - especially on a young child - is risky, even life-threatening. I can't say that I would risk the life of my child for a cochlear implant surgery. And it would not be my place to encourage it either. However, would you not give you child surgery to correct a cleft lip or cleft palate? A good friend of mine had her first reconstructive surgery at a month old. My friend was also prohibited from playing sports because if a ball hit her at just the right angle, injuries could mean another risky surgery. My friend has had at least 10 surgeries from the age of one month to the age of 16.
I had not heard that children with cochlear implants could not participate in sports or at the playground. In fact, I've seen a video of a teenage girl with a cochlear implant playing volleyball. There are, however, very real dangers facing someone with a cochlear implant or getting an implant face that I failed to address in the article.
Neither of these places are inside the brain.
A cochlear implant is NOT like having a bullet or piece of shell fragment embedded in the brain. NO PART of the implant is actually physically in the brain. The portions of the device that are not outside of the ear are two places: under the skin that covers the the mastoid bone (located behind the ear, not under the ear) and a wire coiled inside your cochlea (the hollow, spiral shaped cavity of the bone that makes up your inner ear).
Thank you so much for your replies. Since the time that I wrote the article, I had been hoping that a member of the Deaf community would read and respond, not only because this issue most affects the Deaf community, but because of the deep seeded controversy of the topic.
I am serious. What exactly is "normal" an attorney friend of mine asked me that after church today. We were discussing deaf issues here where we live and what we both are working on to improve them. He is hearing, I am manual deaf. We both are well educated and enjoy each others company. The more he finds out first hand about the way deaf are treated here in comparsion to hearing, the more he gets involved. No one has to be able to hear to do some thing good. Just respected. the effort being spent on implants should be spent on a national standard of accodomation and better education in practical job skills for the deaf and accodomation education for the hearing. One deaf homeless man here was without shoes in winter!
Back to children. Nothing remotely like a normal childhood. No jumping in a ball pit, no plastic slides, no football, no soccer, no baseball, no softball, no basketball, Anything that hits your head wrong can cause serious injury or death or dystroy the implant. Why would any sane parent do this to a child just for the chance of being in twenty percent? And in that twenty the average may respond to sound, but that will be it. They won't have normal hearing...whatever that is.
The people who push the implants the most are the manufacturers. Cochlear Corp runs an ad on web page of satisfied users. Fine. It does not mention the other eighty percent who hate them after getting them or the ninety-five percent of the over all deaf world that despise them. We wish even a tenth of the effort and money spent on curing deafness would be spent on universal national accodomation policies and programs. These implants are just an excuse to bring back the old oralism/manualism argument in a different form. and they provide obscen profits to the makers and surgeons.