Cochlear implants history and its impact on deaf and hard of hearing Research Paper

Cochlear implants history and its impact on deaf and hard of hearing - Research Paper Example A cochlear implant consists of internal and external parts that act to facilitate sound perception. The external portion has a microphone, a speech processor and a sound transmitter. The microphone role is to pick up external sound, playing similar role like a hearing aid. It sends it directly to the speech processor that does analyze and digitalize the signals, sending them to the transmitter. The transmitter is worn by the victims just behind the ear, and sends the coded signals to the receivers implanted in the skin. Some electrodes are implanted in the cochlea through a surgical process. Such electrodes do stimulate the auditory nerves fibers arraying the sensations to the sounds (Clark, 2008, P 657 C 2 L 1-15). There are various centers in the country that does carry out the implantation process. There are multidisciplinary team involvement and multi-sectorial approach. The teams comprise of a surgeon, nurses, psychologists, language pathologist, and audiologist. Such a team does work hand in hand with the relatives of the client for the sake of health education and follow up. Not every person with a hearing deficit does qualify for an implant. For adults, one must be having profound hearing loss, does not benefit from hearing aids and with no chronic conditions that may put the surgical procedure at risk. In addition to that, the person should have a strong ambition to be a part of those who hear, listen and speech read. Of the critical factors, they should have lost their hearing ability shortly after the speech and language development duration. Children should be actively involved in the rehabilitation process after surgery to enhance coping mechanism. They should also receive immense educational support from the institutions where they do study so that they can have a chance to develop their auditory skills (Kermit, 2009, P 378 C 2 L 7-14). The process of implantation involves a multidisciplinary approach. A series of investigations have to be