Video Of Baby Hearing for First Time After Cochlear Implant
After learning sign language and about deaf culture over the past couple of years this justt makes my heart happy!
A two year old video has recently been gaining popularity around web – in it a baby hears for the first time thanks to a cochlear implant. The boy in the video lights up, smiling widely as he hears the voice of his mother for the first time. It’s a touching scene. It’s also a sign of things to come. These implants are one of the most common ways people are becoming cyborgs, augmenting their bodies with technology. The device uses a microphone, processor, and transceiver to directly stimulate the auditory nerve via an electrode array. This, for many who are implanted, provides a close facsimile of natural hearing. For now they seek to provide sensory input close to an average human level, but one day they could far exceed the limits of human hearing. Something to think about when you watch the baby smiling in the video below.
There are more than 400,000 deaf people in the United States, and millions more around the world. According to the National Institute of Health, less than 200,000 people worldwide have cochlear implants, but the rate of adoption is increasing. In the US, the FDA has approved implants in children as early as one year old. In some cases (such as the one shown in the video) some doctors have fitted even younger infants with devices regardless of FDA guidelines. A new generation of children born with deafness is poised to be raised with implants. The young boy in the video, eight month old Jonathan, is a prime example of the trend:
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Hello, Ben!
I don’t know if you are aware, but this topic is HUGELY controversial in Deaf culture. This sort of thing (putting implants in babies and small children) is almost universally regarded negatively and totally wrong by Deaf people. Most would say to let the child decide for him/herself once he/she became older. It is viewed as “parents trying to make their child into a ‘hearing’ person.”
Also this is a very destructive procedure, since the nerves in the ear are severed in order to install the implant. Researches show these implants don’t even come close to replicating actual hearing; in fact they are a poor substitute.
I see you are here in Louisville and have been learning sign language! I’d like to encourage you to keep doing so – it’s a very, very valuable skill! Also I’d like to make you aware of our church, Louisville Baptist Deaf Church (www.lbdc.net) at which I am the associate pastor. I’m a 2006 grad of Southern and have been at LBDC since I moved here in ’99. We would love to have you visit sometime! We rent space from Bethlehem Baptist Church on Preston Highway, and have Bible study Wednesdays at 6:30 meet Sundays with Sunday School at 9:30 am and worship at 10:30.
Praying this comment finds you very blessed by the Lord!
My daughter was born deaf, she recieved a cochlear implant when she turned one. Since than she has made amazing progress in her hearing. At two years old she is starting to speak. Even though she can now hear she will forever be a deaf person & we strongly inforce the use of sign lanuage in our home. My husband and I are truely amazed And thankful with what the cochlear implant has given our family.