Going on trips with kids with hearing loss requires a little bit more forethought but is well worth the effort.
Verifying a Novel Method for Assessing Speech Motor Skills in Children With Cochlear Implants
By combining principles and tools from engineering and computer science with cognitive and linguistic science, we envision developing robotic devices to deliver speechlike patterns of somatosensory input to the vocal tracts of children who use cochlear implants as they learn to listen to speech sounds through their implant processor.
From Dark Days to a Bright Future
Networking among parents of children with cochlear implants who live all over the world leads to a solution for a young girl.
We Believe ‘CI Kids’ Can Do Anything
CI kids are not disabled. The handicaps are not the cochlear implants but rather the low awareness of the parents and caregivers around them. I believe immensely in the possibilities these children have and find that adversity is an opportunity. When CI kids push themselves to achieve greater things, the sky's the limit.
Hearing Is Believing
I lost my hearing suddenly and in both ears at age 21. It was May 1957. I was on lunch break with friends and heading back to the Boston ad agency where we worked. Suddenly I pitched forward, losing my balance. The hearing in my left ear disappeared. Days later, my right ear lost nearly all hearing too.
Cochlear Implants: The Miracle Ears
In the hospital, our daughter, Saghar, passed the otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test, while our son, Sina, needed a follow up after failing his. The doctors indicated there might have been amniotic fluid left behind his eardrums. Always an optimist, I didn’t give Sina’s test results a second thought. However, Keyvan has always been a realist. He was worried. He was right to be.
Tuning In Montreal
A new policy championed by William Steinberg, mayor of Hampstead, Quebec—a suburb of Montreal—aims to make CIs more accessible to Canadians.
Ready to Take On the World
Beginning at age 4, I had ear pain that caused recurrent infections. My mother, worried, took me to multiple ear specialists, the fourth of whom warned these infections could result in a conductive hearing loss.
Your Concerns About Cochlear Implants, Answered
Cochlear implantation has one of the most favorable risk–benefit ratios of any surgical procedure in the U.S., offering significant communicative benefit while incurring little risk.
Miracle Moments
By Casey Dandrea
Virginia toddler Charlotte (Charly)’s first experiences with sound using hearing aids captivated millions. The video, taken in 2017 when Charly was an infant, aired across multiple local television networks and went viral on the internet.
Photo credit: Christy Keane (@theblushingbluebird)
Charly’s mother, Christy Keane, is heard fighting back tears in response to her daughter’s expressions. “I’ve never seen that face before. You’re going to make me cry,” Christy says as Charly displays a smile and her eyes light up. For the first time, Charly was visibly reacting to Christy’s voice.
Charly’s one-minute viral video debut was more than heartwarming—it was educational. With technology, children born with hearing loss can communicate just like those with typical hearing.
Christy’s understanding of profound hearing loss before Charly’s diagnosis was minimal. “I had never met a deaf person in my life and had absolutely no knowledge on hearing loss or intervention options,” Christy says. Following Charly’s birth, Christy immediately surrounded herself and family with a team of supportive specialists to earn more about pediatric hearing loss and options for treatment.
Charly was diagnosed with a bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss at age 1 month after failing all three hearing tests as a newborn. She was fitted with hearing aids at 2 months old, which she wore for eight months prior to her cochlear implant (CI) surgery in June 2018. Christy and her husband chose cochlear implantation for their daughter because they wanted to give Charly the best access to speech and sound for her needs.
Christy and Charly. Photo credit: Christy Keane (@theblushingbluebird)
Having had access to sound since infancy, Charly will enjoy the same opportunities as a child with typical hearing. Children who receive early intervention for hearing loss reduce their risk of falling behind in speech and language acquisition, academic achievement, and social and emotional development.
The video’s reception inspired Christy to chronicle her daughter’s progress on Instagram. Now with one hundred thousand followers, Christy is thankful to have touched so many individuals all over the world. Her #miraclemomentsoftheday posts, in which she records Charly’s reactions to her daily CI activation (and previously her hearing aids), are especially popular.
Christy is proud to have created a forum that provides encouragement to families of children with hearing loss. “Every day I receive a message from a parent of a newly diagnosed child and I can remember the exact emotions they are experiencing,” she says “I love to be an example of how fulfilling it is to be a parent-advocate and how quickly your perspective changes as you learn more about hearing loss and language options.”
Christy hopes to change perceptions of hearing loss offline, too. She volunteers with Virginia Hands & Voices, an organization that helps families of children with hearing loss. Ultimately, Christy is working to provide an atmosphere for families with children with hearing loss to come together to celebrate their achievements and share their experiences.
Casey Dandrea is an HHF intern studying journalism at Long Island University Brooklyn. For more on Charly’s progress, see Christy’s Instagram.