Use of cochlear implants
Postlingually deaf adults
Notes:
1950’s, a signal device was developed using electrical signals directly to the person’s inner ear; 1960’s, an implantable cochlear prosthesis was developed and clinical trails were begun using the implant with deaf adults
Tyler and Lowder (1990) - postlingually deaf: enriching exposure to background sounds (running tap water, refrig. hum), improved lip-reading, understood speech without visual cues, perceived changes in vocal intonation and intensity (number of syllables, accents, inflection, emotional content), difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments
Eisenberg (1982) - prelingually deaf: first sensation - dizziness, spinning in the head, pulsation of eyes deep inside head, vibration in head but not in region of ear (postlingual - auditory feeling deep within the ear): took longer to acclimate to sound, reduced tolerance for intensity of stimulus, perceived horns and their names, changes in voice quality, knowledge that most objects are capable of producing sound and sounds from a distance was a revelation, reported feeling more independent, social & less lonely
1980 first implant for children - Eisenberg (1982) - first reaction, confused, created anxiety (used behavior-shaping approach for desensitization): Kveton (1991) - greater improvement at younger age & deaf for shorter period of time, improvements also in congenitally deaf, detected medium and high-intensity sounds, understood speech without lipreading, improved speech production