You’ve just found out your child’s been diagnosed with hearing loss. But what hearing devices will she need? Should you look into hearing aids or cochlear implants?
With today’s technology, babies as young as a few weeks old can get the devices needed for their hearing loss. Your pediatric audiologist will recommend what makes sense for your child based on her level of hearing loss and unique needs.
Before your next appointment with the pediatric audiologist, you can prepare with a little more knowledge about these hearing devices. Here’s more about cochlear implants and hearing aids.
How hearing works
To understand the differences between hearing aids and cochlear implants and what they do, we also need to understand some basic ways the ear works. We often think hearing loss is about the ears, but it's really about the brain. That means hearing aids and cochlear implants are actually brain-access devices.
Think of hearing loss as a doorway problem. If the doorway to the brain is blocked, hearing aids and cochlear implants open that door. They provide the brain with access to sound, meaning and language so that a child can learn to listen and talk.
Here’s how the ear works: We have the outside part of our ear, and we have an ear canal. The ear picks up sound as transmitted, and that sound is acoustic energy. It travels through the middle ear and to the cochlea. The job of the cochlea is to transduce or to convert the acoustic energy into electric energy. Inside the cochlea are little hair cells, and those hair cells propagate or move that sound along and help transduce or convert it.
In a typical ear, electric energy is carried onto the brain, and the signal gets to the brain. But sometimes there are those little hair cells within that cochlea that are missing or absent. In that case, sound needs to be louder or amplified — that's what hearing aids do.
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Sometimes the hair cells are missing or absent to the extent that the sound can’t be made loud enough. In that case, the ability of the cochlea to transduce or convert acoustic energy into electric energy needs to happen through a cochlear implant.
What's the difference between hearing aids and cochlear implants?
Think of hearing technology as a continuum. No matter what the severity of your child's hearing loss, she can have access to sound thanks to today’s technology. She can have access to all the speech and language that surround her so she can have her brain stimulated as it grows and develops.
Whether your child needs a hearing aid or cochlear implants really depends on the severity and the type of hearing loss your child has. Your pediatric audiologist will be your partner and best guide in deciding what's going to be the best technology for your child.
Hearing aids
With hearing aids, your baby will need something called an ear mold that's been specifically designed or created by your pediatric audiologist. The device sits on the baby's ear and will amplify, or make sound louder, for your baby to hear sound.
Cochlear implants
A cochlear implant has different parts: an external piece that the child wears on the ear and an internal component, which is surgically implanted by a highly specialized physician.
The external part of a cochlear implant is the part that collects sound, or takes sound and acoustic energy into the cochlea. The electrode array that's been inserted into the cochlea stimulates that auditory nerve directly.
Cochlear implant surgery may sound a bit scary for a little one, but rest assured, it's a safe surgical procedure and something you should explore and talk about with your doctor. Typically, cochlear implant surgery is less risky than a tonsillectomy.
Whatever device your pediatric audiologist recommends, the important thing is to act urgently so your child can wear hearing devices during waking hours. Ask your audiologist to make sure that your child has access to all the sounds of speech through her hearing technology. Stay up-to-date on your child’s audiology appointments.
Your child's diagnosis of hearing loss may be overwhelming or unexpected, but the terrific thing about today’s hearing technology is that your child can learn to listen and talk, read, and do well in life.
For more information, check out this free helpful webinar with a leading pediatric audiologist who goes into more detail about today’s hearing devices. And to keep track of your little one's milestones, here's a guide from Hearing First that outlines what to expect in terms of hearing/auditory, cognitive, speech, and language development.
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