Young People & Cochlear Implants
We now have the first group of young people growing up with implants, and we have a new research project, funded by NDCS, with Amy Skipp. The research will look into attitudes to implants and outcomes from implantation in the views of the young people themselves, rather than the professionals who support them.
Current Research Projects at the Ear Foundation
Young People and their Cochlear Implants
Last year we interviewed a group of 29 young people from Nottingham and Southampton cochlear implant programmes to ask them about what it is like to have a cochlear implant. This project was funded by the NDCS.
We were interested in the advantages and disadvantages of wearing a cochlear implant, how implants help them at home and school and whether they would recommend one to others.
- We found that all the young people we interviewed were very positive about their implant and were happy that their parents had chosen it for them .
- One third of the young people said that one big advantage of having an implant is that is helps communication with family and friends .
- Some of them talked about how much they hate to be without their speech processor if it isn’t working .
- When asked how it could be improved, a quarter couldn’t think of anything; many of the others wanted a truly waterproof speech processor that they could wear when swimming .
- The young people said that parents of young deaf children and other teenagers who have gone deaf should go ahead with an implant if they cannot be helped with hearing aids .
We are writing a paper for publication in a journal and also a booklet which will be sent out to parents and teenagers. We have also presented our results at conferences at home and abroad.
We would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to all the young people who took part in this survey