Cochlear implants
Devices can offer hope to deafened children

Children’s Cochlear Implant Program has implanted the device above in over 200 children.

For a child with profound hearing loss, early identification and treatment is incredibly important to language development, especially during the critical period between birth and 3 years.

One option for families facing profound hearing loss in a child is cochlear implantation, and Children’s Hospital Boston’s Cochlear Implant Program, which has implanted over 200 children, is one of the largest programs of its type in the country.

A cochlear implant works by capturing sound from the environment through an external sound processor, which then translates the sound into digital information and transmits it to an implant under the scalp. The implant delivers the information to the brain as electrical impulses, via an electrode attached to an auditory nerve. A common misconception is that the cochlear implant functions as a hearing aid. In fact, the device does not provide “normal hearing,” but does allow children to detect and differentiate between sounds.

To fully benefit from surgical implantation, children need to go through postoperative training, which can take up to several years depending on how long the child has been deaf, the presence of ossification in the cochlear, and other medical conditions.

Multiple experts, including a pediatric otolaryngologist, a pediatric audiologist, a clinical psychologist, and a speech and language therapist from the hospital’s Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children, evaluate each child referred to the cochlear implantation team at Children’s. The workup may also involve referral to developmental pediatricians, pediatric neurologists, ophthalmologists and geneticists. A battery of blood work as well as EKG and neuroradiologic imaging are also needed.

This team approach provides a complete physical, educational and social assessment of each child’s options for communicating more effectively, and allows Children’s specialists to set realistic expectations for parents who opt for implantation.

	For more information on Children’s Cochlear Implant Program, visit: www.childrenshospital.org/cochlear. To make a referral to the program, call (617) 355-2959.