Yes... I can hear that. :-)

Saterday morning... I walk down the stairs into the living room... The girls, Lotte and Sanne are watching TV, around the corner.. they can't see me coming down..

Then, a little voice say's... "Good morning daddy.. :-) "

Lotte gives me a big smile when I turn the corner...

"I could hear it was you.. :-)  "

How's that for CI technology... Hearing someone coming down the stairs, and even hearing who it is..

So, next time you hear a simulation of "how a CI sounds".... don't believe it..

Because - there's one thing those programs can't simulate...

The brain...

Another milestone..

So many milestones that will be reached when raising a child. And, even though we know they should appear, we never know when they come... and then, suddenly, after a long straight stretch of road they appear around the next corner... Suddenly, unexpected... but clearly visible...



With a child born deaf there are also milestones, some the same, some different. And with Lotte, born deaf, and implanted with bi-lateral CI in november 2004, the milestones might be the same as for a hearing child... they just are a bit further up the road... or did we just get on the road a bit later?

Anyway.... today we turned one of those corners...

Lotte was sitting at the table, waiting for dinner.. Suddenly, she said.... "Mammaaaa.... " (standard start of an important message :-) ... and continued "kniv - mes" (knife), "hus - huis" (house) etc... A switch has closed and she got the idea of two languages... And not only that... Different words is one thing, but she went further and did the same with the names of her siblings... the "Norwegian pronunciation - Dutch pronunciation"..

Something really clicked. And to repeat the slight change in pronunciation of the names of her brother and sister is another amazing feat.

Remember how people sometimes want to know how CI sounds... there are computer-simulations that will reproduce a sentence simulating 4, 8 or 12 "electrodes" and it sounds mechanical, distorted etc... I am always skeptical of these simulations because they ignore a major aspect... the brain.

And this shows it... The simulation of the same name with a different "dialect / language" would very likely produce the same "sound" when run through only 12 electrodes... The differences are small, but Lotte has no problem reproducing them... (Reminds me when she repeated the word "Aubergine" perfectly...)

Anyway... To all those out there that are inpatient... (like we still are), and who look at their children when they play with children their own age and compare them... (like we do), I would just like to say that with CI, we put our children on the same road as the hearing children. They will follow the same road, and they will have the same milestones as the rest... but still, they got on the road a little later... with a different vehicle.

And the milestones... they are not fixed. For every child - deaf or hearing - they are at different places... but they will all meet them.... and they will meet them all.

The difficult part is... being patient..

How does it sound ?? - Hearing loss.... and CI

For people that hear normally, imagining hearing loss is difficult.

For those who want to get a glimpse, here's a link to the website of Phonak with some excellent examples of how things, environment, music sounds with and without hearing loss.... (See image below)

I have been on a site where one could listen to "how a CI sounds" depending on the number of electrodes and the insertion-depth of the CI-electrode...
Will see if I can fin that site again. It gives an impression of the quality, but on the other hand, it cannot account for the brain to do it's job. (Found it - here for Adults, here for children !

Be aware.. the research is almost 10 years old.... technology moved forward.. Found another one on a PBS webside with Alan Alda here ..... from 2005.... nice!)

People that have heard but became deaf, before explain that at first the sound with CI to be metallic-like, but the brain is quick to adjust it to "normal" sound - as it was before. I recall a man that recognised his wifes voice again after 5 years of deafness. The brain is a wonderful organ!

Anyway... "enjoy" these soundfiles!

For the researchers under us... this research (pdf) might be of interest....