As a surgically implanted electrical device to help recipients, especially those with profound hearing loss, access sound and achieve near-hearing speech understanding normal by providing a sensation of sound in a relatively quiet acoustic environment, cochlear implants have always been controversial among deaf people as well as among hearing parents of deaf children. First, although increasingly advanced technology has been applied to the development and improvement of this device, it can in no way be considered a cure for deafness. By directly stimulating the auditory nerve rather than amplifying sound as much as possible with residual hearing, the implant processes digital signals via a wire equipped with far fewer electrodes corresponding to different signal frequencies than that of a cochlea functional, leading to inevitable hearing limitation and sound distortion. Still, it's certainly a revolutionary improvement over old-school hearing aids. There is no denying that implants produce a facsimile of sound for people with severe hearing loss, providing a chance for the deaf, especially children deafened at an early age who apparently have a much more promising chance of mastering the spoken language, to flourish both in the deaf community and the world of sound, which, as its main advantage, already has more reasons to surpass other potential disadvantages. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay According to criteria set by the FDA, children aged one year and older who need such devices are eligible for a cochlear implant. Robert Ruben, former chairman of the Unified Department of Otolaryngology at Montefiore Medical Center, advised. “Language, whatever it may be, must, in one way or another, be introduced into the child's head early enough.” When you think about it, implantation at a young age actually makes a lot of sense, as being exposed to sound during such a critical learning period would significantly improve their chances of language acquisition and smoother assimilation into the hearing world when they grew up. And also, the sooner they start, the sooner they will go through the intense post-operative speech therapy to get used to the implant without the tangle of substantial sunk costs present primarily in implanted adults who have taken years of detours in wearing hearing aids. Although a cochlear implant can only provide 1%, give or take, of the hearing acuity of a properly functioning hearing system, basic understanding and communication with the outside world remains desired for the vast majority living in the silence. So, in conclusion, as long as candidates pass all tests required by their audiologists and surgeons, they should get implants as soon as possible. With the need to receive a cochlear implant for a severely hearing impaired child established, is there an optimal time for surgical intervention or better, on a case by case basis, determined later as recipients enter adulthood or adolescence? This leads to potential problems. On the one hand, how do we draw the temporal limit when a child is fully capable of making his own decisions? If a legal definition is the way to go, then in addition to missing the perfect window of language use, the young man or woman will inevitably have already become accustomed to living in the deaf community and will be reluctant to leave their comfort zoneto deal with problems. the difficulty of learning a whole new oral language at the risk of receiving sideways looks every time he speaks. As Rome is not built in a day, training for cochlear implants is not an easy task either. Extensive practices are required for a recipient to get the most optimized understanding of the device, fine tuning and adjustments by audiologists during training also take a lot of time as the sounds processing through the device may not not be natural at first, so it would be twice as awkward, if not more, for the recipient who is probably a full-time student or has a day job. Additionally, while it may not be the primary concern of the sufferer themselves, the argument that surgery should wait until the child can decide whether or not to undergo it sounds a lot like a misleading misrepresentation that is not in the mainstream. the best interests of the child for the simple reason that the perspective of a person who has been involved in the deaf community for over 10 years due to their inability to communicate fluently with others has had to undergo a seismic shift and move away from neutrality. In fact, the benefits of cochlear implant are countless. First, the chances of mastering oral language for a prelingually deaf child are surprisingly promising, at the very least, to the extent that they may become successful individuals in the hearing world at some point. a comfortable level. The intensity and difficulty of auditory therapy and training would also be lessened for young learners. If, on the other hand, parents decide to wait for their children's consent, then they are putting their child through an arduous program of auditory therapy that is much less likely to result in successful oral language skills, making the adoption of an ineffective cochlear implant, for starters. Through cochlear implantation, the recipient is able to bridge the culture between the deaf and the hearing world rather than finding themselves with no choice but confined to the deaf community, regardless of their wishes. Not that there is anything wrong with either community, but it is always ideal to have an alternative. Some children actually yearn for an active social life with family, friends, classmates, and work colleagues. Thanks to the cochlear implant, improved speech perception now allows them to expand their career opportunities and participate in a learning environment more independently to feel a boost of confidence in life. And the list of benefits goes on, such as awareness of imminent dangers, such as being more attentive to car horns, sirens, fire alarms, etc. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.Get a custom essay Of course, the technology behind the device is hardly perfect at this point, an indelible background noise that constantly bothers the wearers, a destruction to their hearing residual and a relatively high cost of the surgery and subsequent therapy, but What is really the hot topic fueling the ongoing controversy is above all the discontent of the deaf community which targets public discrimination consisting of defining deafness as a handicap. The cochlear implant debate is actually a mechanism for a broader debate about assimilation versus alienation, about the extent to which the standardization of human populations is a mark.