Cochlear Implants Research Paper

Consequently, as you can see both hearing aids and cochlear implants have very superlative technology, that they have countless positive effects on many individual lives around the country and are an important contribution for parents to understand these advancements and help their child the best they can. “Hearing loss can impact your work and social life,” says Larocque. “Restoring one’s hearing gives people their life back,” (Donohue 1). A primary benefit of wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants is enhanced directional perception. An individual that hears better in one ear may find it difficult to locate where sounds are coming from because perception is off due to the fact that you are receiving sound of a decreased volume in one

side. These advanced technologies can help to balance out this issue. Another advantage is that by utilizing these technologies one can have an improved conversational comprehension. They help to amplify the starts, stops, and high-pitched sounds that are common in speech. Many people with hearing losses have a difficulty distinguishing sounds like “th” or “s” from one another. “If hearing aids don’t offer enough help, implants might be worth a look. They convert sound to digital info that is sent to an electrode surgically placed in the inner ear, which communicates the sound to the brain via the auditory nerve,”(Laliberte 3). Hearing devices are very costly but insurance helps to cover these costs. “Medicare and most private insurance plans routinely cover cochlear implants,” (Herzog 1). A disadvantage of hearing aids and other hearing devices in the past is that they were not very attractive. Now, they come in a variety of styles and configurations including models that are completely in the ear canal or behind the ear. Being able to hear better outweighs any of the disadvantages.
The topic of the new hearing advancements, has not only focused on the positive impacts on individuals receiving these new technologies, but also focuses on disadvantages of getting either hearing aids or cochlear implants. One disadvantage is that many people that could benefit from these hearing devices do not take advantage of them. “But the rate of hearing aid use is phenomenally low—about 15 percent of those who need one." That's partly because Medicare and most insurance plans don't cover hearing aids,” (Can You Hear Me 3). Hearing aids can be very costly with some costing as much as $8,000 per pair. Many would argue you cannot put a price on how much an individual’s quality of life can improve. Another disadvantage is that the potential discomfort from choosing the wrong style or type. This can usually be an easy fix by visiting an audiologist to obtain a more suitable model. An additional disadvantage is the inconvenience and maintenance issues. Proper and routine maintenance is required to keep the hearing aids or cochlear implants functioning well. The final disadvantage is the stigma of wearing hearing aids. Now that these devices are small and many times not even seen, this is not a major issue any longer. “Cost, stigma, inconvenience. Those and other barriers may explain why millions of Americans with impaired hearing don't use hearing aids,” (Can you Hear Me Now 2). “Cochlear implants bypass damaged portions of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Signals generated by the implant are sent by way of the auditory nerve to the brain. Hearing through a cochlear implant is different from normal hearing and takes time to learn. Some cochlear implants are extremely successful,” Martin says. "But people with implants are still deaf,” (Walker 1). These devices do not cure hearing loss, but aid the individual to hear better by utilizing the technologies that are available. These devices are made to make a difference in individual’s lives which is why people from all around the world should have these advancements.
By analyzing the positives and negatives of all of these advancements, one can easily see that the positive outweigh the negatives because it not only changes individual lives in a way that is unimaginable, but it helps the hard of hearing community to have more options and better technology to those who want a better life. Having these certain advancement can make a major impact on individual’s lives such as self- confidence, more job opportunities, and even speech perception. As an author named Ken Donohue, once stated in his article, “Hearing loss can impact your work and social life,” says Larocque. “Restoring one’s hearing gives people their life back,” (Donohue 1). This specifically means these advances can help an individual with minor or major hearing loss and will have a numerous impact on ones’ life and social life. With that being said, having a hearing aid, or cochlear implant can give someone the opportunity to live life a little more normal. There are many people around the world who care about the individuals from hearing and deaf community. Even in an article, the author Kingston presents, “Certainly we're going to make people live longer, healthier, happier lives," says MIT scientist and engineer Robert Langer, renowned for developing "smart" implantable microchips that target drugs directly at tumors,”( Kingston 2). Most scientist or engineers try to make living life a little better for individuals, they care for certain people who are having difficulty dealing with having issues such as a hearing loss, disease or other obstacles. With that being said, these technologies of hearing aids or cochlear implants, developed by professionals will always help the society and make those people live a lot better. One of those lives is a girl named Veronika in an article written by Micheal Chorost which he stated, “Veronika said she loved having a fully implanted device: “You don’t have to think about it. That’s the most important thing. When it was turned on, it was one of the most beautiful experiences I ever had. Nothing touching my ear. That natural feeling of hearing—it’s just beautiful,” (Chorost 2). This came from a girl who was having an enormous difficulty hearing in her surroundings and once she put on a hearing aid, it change her life. One of the main reasons why people should have these advantages is to have a better impact on their life and cause life experience.
From all around the world a hearing community is a type of group where individuals have a hearing impairment and most of those individuals are proud to be wearing the latest advancement and support these new technologies.

For this research paper I interviewed a mom of 2 children, who is 49 years old named Kathy Hilling. Hilling was born with a severe hearing loss in both ears. Hilling even said, “ I was born with a nerve deafness on one side of my ear, so I’ve worn hearing aids my whole life up until last year when I got a cochlear implant on one side,” (Hilling). This means that she a major part of the hearing community, and she is just like all the other individuals who are having the same problem. She loved having hearing aids, and loves having the newest technology of cochlear implants even more. Her mother didn’t know until the age of 2 that she had a hearing loss, when someone noticed she was always distracted in preschool. Hilling even stated, “I wish my mom would’ve known sooner about my hearing, so I could have had early invention and had help with speech and had had the different kinds of developments. I could have received hearing aids at an earlier age,” (Hilling). This has made a major impact on Hilling’s live because if she would’ve gotten hearing aids at an earlier age, her speech would be significantly better. Having hearing aids at a young age, helps a child in school with their education and with speech. Speech therapy is essential to start even prior to a baby even speaking. She even expressed, “If I had the choose to choose between hearing aids and cochlear implants I would go for the cochlear implants because it has changed my life in so many ways,”(Hilling). She has had hearing aids her whole life, but once the hearing aids stopped working, there was nothing she could do except to get a cochlear implant. This has changed her life in so many ways, such as hearing sounds she could not hear prior such cars on the street or the noises of fans

going back and forth. The majority of hearing communities feel this way about hearing aids and cochlear implants, and that you can make your life easier especially social situations and everyday tasks much simpler.
Even though most of the hearing community wants to benefit themselves with these new advancements, however many in the deaf community love to be deaf and embrace their true self with their way of life such as sign language. In a recent article written by an author named Lou Ann Walker she discussed a school named St. Joseph’s which is for the deaf and explained that there is only 4,201 schools left that are fighting for the deaf culture. The deaf culture is embracing being deaf and using such things as ASL which stands for American Sign Language. The author even stated, “Robert Pinsky wrote a poem in collaboration with deaf students depicting ASL as "a language, full of grace ... visible, invisible, dark, and clear." It is a language of extraordinary intimacy,” (Walker 3). American Sign Language is a language in the United States, but is slowly decreasing since so many deaf people started to receive cochlear implants. Even a girl stated, “All this reminded me of the remark by a child of a family friend, shortly after he had received a cochlear implant: "Daddy, I think I like deaf better,” (Myers 3). Most of the deaf community feels if you’re deaf and God made you this way, therefore you should be that way. The community feels they need to fight for a survival for ASL or deaf people in general. With all these new advancements that can benefit those individuals who are struggling it has changed the way the community is as Walker stated, “I think the deaf community as we know it is going to be different. Many say the cochlear implant is the demise of deaf culture," (Walker 1). Being deaf is something special to the deaf community and they are hoping for a future for the coming generations.