Looking back on our Cochlear Implant Journey
Looking back on my blog entries and other CI Pages on this site, I notice that I've never really talked about some of our experiences from birth to now that may be of interest to others.
Our kids were lucky enough to be born at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital, where there is a newborn hearing screening program. We essentially knew right away that Brendan was deaf (technically a profound hearing loss) and he was wearing hearing aids at nine weeks old. I have only one complaint about that whole process, and it's more like a wish: I wish we had received a "congratulations, you have a deaf child -- now here's the 10 steps to follow and people to call in the Bay Area" pamphlet. The staff at the hospital tried to help, but their program was not that mature at the time.
But we soon identified most of the Bay Area's deaf education resources, and dove headfirst in to the various Sign / Oral / Total Communication / etc. debates. We evaluated our options and pushed forward. Before too long we were pretty sure that he was not getting any benefit from the hearing aids and we knew we needed a plan B. This turned out to be a cochlear implant, and on his first birthday, Brendan had CI surgery done by Dr. Roberson of California Ear Institute.
On his implant activation a few weeks later, we knew right away that he could hear something. Though he was hearing right away, it was more than two years before he could really talk.
Over those two years we knew he obviously was hearing and responding, so we kept "pouring language into him." He attended an oral deaf education school and we focused our lives on his success. Eventually he began to talk, and rapidly increased his expressive vocabulary. We used to keep a list of words he could say, but that quickly became a futile effort. By the time he entered kindergarten at age five, there wasn't even a question of a vocabulary deficiency. At the end of kindergarten his vocabulary was beyond what one would expect to see for someone ending the first grade.
Brendan's speech is indistinguishable from his peers (and often better -- probably due to working on it), and his hearing is amazing. Though he doesn't hear as well as his peers, he uses no extra assistive devices and participates in all class activities, including music. He can talk on the telephone (with either implant), whisper, and sing. Many people we meet simply do not believe he's deaf.
I can only guess as the sources of Brendan's success with his Cochlear Implants. Much of the credit goes to the device manufacturer, surgeon, and habilitation team of course. We (his parents) worked hard to find the best options we could, and then continued to focus on what it takes to get to a successful outcome. And of course I think Brendan himself deserves a lot of credit -- he's cheerfully accepted every challenge in front of him, and that's made all of our tasks much more pleasant.
Categories: cochlear_implants
