Cochlear implants and Hearing Aids

Technically I'm a student teacher

So I saw a post about cochlear implants, and realized how little the public knows about these things. Instead of doing a post about my job, I thought I'd try to help you guys out a bit. For the record- I'm a student teacher, soon to be Deaf Ed. I graduate in a week. Took a looooot of classes on this stuff, as well as having seen it in the classroom.

So this is the ear

Yeah, most of you already know how it looks/works. Sound goes in the big flappy part (your pinna or auricle), goes through the tube, and is eventually turned into information through your snail shell- Cochlea- that is sent via the auditory nerve to your brain. If you want more information than that, take an audiology course!

Trying to help

People have been working for years to try to help deaf people be able to hear, or at least function in the hearing world around them. Alexander Graham Bell even tried a few devices. Don't ask deaf people about him, though- AGB is the devil. Like, tried to keep deaf people from marrying each other devil.

Conductive vs Sensorineural

Sorry for the low quality picture, but again, this is your ear. The blue snail-shell thing is your cochlea, what cochlear implants deal with. We'll get to that in a bit, though. For now we're trying to discuss the two main types of hearing loss: Sensorineural and Conductive. Conductive is easy: there's a reason why sound can't get from outside your head to the cochlea. There's lots of possible reasons, but that's the main problem, and it can usually be helped with hearing aids of some sort.Sensorineural is harder- there's a reason why sound isn't getting from your cochlea to your brain. This one's harder to help.

Hearing aids galore!

So. I could do a whole post on the different types of hearing aids. In the ear, behind the ear, bone conduction, etc. Suffice to say, the idea is to get sound TO your cochlea, so that it can send the signals to your brain. Basically, any hearing aid picks up sound outside your head with a mic, and then usually makes it louder inside your ear. I say usually- there's other schools of thought.

Cochlear implants

Ok, here we go. You've all seen the cute videos of people having their CIs turned on the first time. Here's some of what's behind that: in order to implant a CI, they go in and lay relays along the inside of your snail in your ear (cochlea). This destroys any residual hearing you may have had- any. Now, if you don't have your processor on, you're not getting anything out of that ear. And it's not the same "hearing" we're born with. It's very electronic and the brain has to be taught how to listen to it. Also- hearing sound for the first time can be traumatic. I've had kids choose to stop wearing their processors, because they don't like it/it hurts/ etc. I will say that newer models of CIs have more relays, which means the sound quality is much better, but it's still definitely not the same, and it's definitely not easy.

The dilema

So.... not a lot of hearing people are aware of this, but there is a definite Deaf (capital D is important- lower case means the inability to hear) culture out there. People who take pride in who they are, and don't think they need to be fixed. They have communities and meetings and often trust other Deaf people above any hearing person. And to these people, CIs are a terrible terrible thing. They're destroying their culture, and there's not much they can do about it. About 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, who often just want the best for their kids, and for them that means being able to hear. For teachers, a lot of us just want what's best for the kids, as well- which isn't always necessarily to be able to hear. It's LANGUAGE. LANGUAGE IS IMPORTANT, PEOPLE!

Cool fringe tech

So, for part of a project I've done a lot of research on some very interesting fringe technology, including a device that could potentially let people hear with their tongues! If you guys are interested, I'll make a post about some of the fun stuff I've found.

EDIT

So, thought I'd add a touch more about the CI. The thing is- there's two parts. There's an outside part that includes the microphone called the Processor, which is attached via magnet embedded in your head, and there's the implanted relays in your cochlea. The two have to be connected to work. But the processor comes off pretty easily.