Cochlear Implants

A person is always listening. Rarely, does an individual ever hear true silence and in those rare circumstances they will not feel peace, but rather become anxious. Noise is a sense of comfort and security and can indicate a countless amount of things to the listener even if they are unaware of their surroundings. A deaf person does not have the luxury of sound and is forced to lip read, use a hearing device, or sign to people. Although these are all satisfactory ways to communicate, the cochlear implant acts more as a replacement to hearing instead of another means of communicating. Cochlear implants are the most viable hearing device for parents that choose not to teach their child sign language or for people that plan to rely on hearing aids and years of intense speech therapy and lip reading courses. Although cochlear implants are a breakthrough in technology they do have limitations and many believe that these risks outweigh the benefits of the cochlear implant. Many different types of hearing loss and different degrees of hearing loss have seen improvement once implanted with the device. Even though the benefits of the Cochlear implant are countless the devices are still met with controversy and skepticism, especially when children younger than four are implanted. Children should be implanted with cochlear implants because the earlier the child is implanted the better they can associate sounds with words to develop speech faster and more accurately. Cochlear implants are capable tools that allow the subject to hear and develop language skills more efficiently than with any other device, in adults as well as children. The Cochlear implant cannot be denied as an option to deaf children even though it has some limitations and risks because compared to other devices, the cochlear implant allows the deaf to hear. The benefits of a simple sound outweigh everything else.