What happens now my child has had their implant operation?
Soon after the cochlear implant surgery, you will receive the first three tuning or mapping appointments with the audiologist.
In the meantime, it is important the wound and scar are kept clean to avoid infection. You will be given instructions about this when your child is discharged from the hospital after surgery.
It may be essential for your child to be checked by one of our ENT surgeons to prevent or treat any infections which could cause further problems or delay your child’s device switch-on.
Out of office hours
James Cook patients please contact the ward where you stayed (usually ward 22) through the hospital switchboard to ask advice.
Freeman and RVI patients please attend local emergency department, GP or walk in centre who will contact the Freeman Hospital ENT registrar through the switchboard.
When will my child’s cochlear implant be switched on?
The first tuning appointment is also called switch-on or initial stimulation. This is when the sound processor (worn on the outside) is connected to the internal implant to introduce some stimulation.
In most cases your child’s cochlear implant will be ‘switched on’ three weeks after their surgery. This is to give your child enough time to recover from surgery and for the wound to heal properly.
There is also usually some swelling around the implant site which takes a few weeks to gradually settle down.
This is important as it could affect the wearing of the coil or headpiece as sometimes even the strongest magnet is not enough to keep it in place. This would make it difficult for the sound processor to send the signals to the internal implant.
What happens in the switch on appointment?
Appointments usually last for 60 to 90 minutes, and sometimes longer when children have two implants. The audiologist will check the implant site.
They will also check that the magnet strength for the headpiece or coil is just right. In some cases, a stronger magnet is needed initially, but may be reduced as the scar and swelling settles completely over time.
While the processor and coil are being worn the external sound processor will then be connected to the computer with a wire which allows the audiologist to start tuning.
A quick test of the electrodes will be performed first to ensure that these are all working fine. There are occasions, although rare, where electrodes will have to be disabled if they show unusual activity. If this occurs, the audiologist will explain this to you in more detail.
Once this is done, the audiologist will start the mapping or tuning. This is the process of converting acoustical speech signals into electrical stimulation. To measure this, the stimulation will sound like beeps.
Children will be trained to respond in different ways, depending on their age. For example older children will either be asked to count the number or rate the loudness of the beeps.
Sometimes a different type of measurement will be done where the child is not required to give a response. This is called an objective measurement.
Once these levels are established, the audiologist will then switch the processor on to ‘live’ but at very low levels to begin with. Initially, what your child will hear may just be noises. It will take a while for the brain to adapt to the sound of the cochlear implant.
During the first session, even a small amount of stimulation usually sounds loud. The levels will gradually increase over time as your child gets used to the implant. As the levels increase, the sound quality usually improves.
Further testing will be regularly performed by the audiologist to ensure that the levels are set appropriately.
How often does my child need to see the audiologist for tuning?
This varies for every child as it depends on how quickly the levels stabilise but you should expect to have more frequent tunings within the first year especially if your child has bilateral cochlear implants.
The number and frequency of your child’s tuning appointments will depend on clinical need which will be decided by the audiologist. However, the standard guideline we follow is shown below:
1st tuning (switch-on) = Three weeks after surgery
2nd tuning = One week after switch-on
3rd tuning = Two weeks after 2nd tuning
4th tuning = One month after 3rd tuning
5th tuning = Five weeks after 4th tuning
6th tuning = Twelve weeks after 5th tuning (six months post switch-on)
7th tuning = Twenty six weeks after 6th tuning (twelve months post switch-on)
Some children may require more tuning appointments than others to ensure that the levels are always set to be as good as possible. Once the audiologist is satisfied with mapping and there are few changes made at an appointment, your child will only be required to attend a tuning appointment once a year provided that there are no other problems with the cochlear implant.
What is involved in the rehabilitation sessions?
What is rehabilitation?
Rehabilitation is the process we use to enable your child to make the most of the new hearing they receive from their cochlear implant. Rehabilitation focuses on specific targets in a hierarchy of learning to listen skills.
First we aim for your child to detect sounds, then to begin to discriminate sounds from each other.
Then they will begin to recognise and identify sounds and be able to put a name to some of the sounds they hear. Their speech and language will begin to develop once they are able to do these things.
Your child’s awareness of sound and the ability to use it to understand speech and other sounds is developed at the child’s own pace. We aim to make our sessions enjoyable and relaxed.
How do we organise rehabilitation?
Your child’s keyworker, who may be a specialist speech and language therapist or a qualified teacher of deaf children and young people, will discuss with you about our blended service delivery .
The rehab appointments with your cochlear implant keyworker will last approximately an hour. We expect a parent or carer to be present during rehab sessions or a staff member if virtual is accessible in nursery or school .
This enables the people who spend the most time with your child during the week to participate in sessions and to develop ideas for more listening games and activities they can do before the next rehabilitation appointment.
How long does the keyworker appointment last?
Intensive rehabilitation will continue until your child has made significant progress in their listening. Our appointment schedule is determined by our guideline and professional judgement. Rehabilitation appointments will be mutually agreed.
We will discuss how and when these appointments will take place with parents or carers and local services.
The schedule of appointments will be reviewed at intervals and continued as necessary for up to three years.
The implant team will offer an audiological annual review and will collect information on the progress of your child’s speech and language from local services.
Why does my child need rehabilitation?
When a child has their cochlear implant stimulated for the first time, they are rather like a newborn baby who has just been introduced to the world of sound.
Newborn babies spend a lot of time lying in their cot or pram and making sense of sounds around them. Your child is probably far more active than this and their attention is taken up with learning lots of other new skills.
Previously your child gained information about the world around them through other senses, especially sight, but now they need to learn to listen. Being able to hear is not the same as listening to and making sense of sounds.
They need to have their attention deliberately drawn to the sounds around them, sounds such as the telephone, the washing machine, the toilet flushing, as well as noises of toys and of voices.
After some time they will begin to recognise these and become more interested in speech. They may begin to babble and recognise their name being called and turn to look at you.
How do implant keyworkers work with other teachers and therapists?
We liaise regularly with local QToD (qualified teacher of deaf children and young people) and speech and language therapists and in some cases make joint appointments to support your child.
Where children have been introduced to signing before they have an implant, we will also discuss with parents or carers and local services on how to proceed. It is usual for families to continue to use their signing alongside the child’s growing awareness of sounds and speech.
What can I expect in the future?
Children are individual and their development in listening and speech and language will be individual too. It is impossible to predict how well your child will be able to learn to do these things.
We do know, however, that the best chance they have is if they wear their processor all day everyday from as early on after the initial stimulation as possible.
We also know that parents spend far more time with their child than we do and so you are the most important person in helping your child learn to use their cochlear implant.
We will help and support you together with the others in our team, and those in the local services and together we can help your child reach their potential.
What do I do if my child has any problems?
For any queries or concerns about your child’s cochlear implant, please contact us in the office and we will try our best to answer your questions.
Please do not just turn up as it is likely that all the audiologists will be busy with other patients and will not be able to see you.
Top tips to support your child during the first week of switch onWhat should I expect from my child’s cochlear implant(s) and what can I do to help them?
The team around your child
Following implantation and subsequent switch on, both you and your child will receive support from an array of different people in order for your child to get the most from their cochlear implant.
Each team member will play a different role for your child and these professionals usually consist of:
- Ear nose and throat consultant
- Audiologist
- Qualified teacher of deaf children and young people/specialist speech and language therapist (cochlear implant keyworker)
- Technical support from the company whom have provided your child’s cochlear implant
What should you expect your child to hear?
Implant teams routinely counsel parents of children to have ‘realistic expectations’ about what their child may be able to hear with a cochlear implant, particularly in the initial phases of ‘tuning’.
People with an implant will hear varying amounts of sound and speech and how much they are able to hear will depend on factors such as length of deafness, cause of deafness, how often the child has worn hearing aids previously and/or how often they wear their cochlear implant processors and whether the child has other additional needs. These factors will have all been discussed prior to implantation.
How much should the implant be used?
We encourage parents to help their children wear their processors all of their waking hours and in as many different listening situations as possible. Gradually, over the first few weeks and months, your child will make steady progress.
This may take more or less time than you expected and also the rate of improvement may vary. Sometimes your child may make a lot of progress in a short time and other times you will feel their progress may be slowing down.
How do we monitor your child’s cochlear implant use?
We are able to monitor how often your child is wearing their processor and in what situations and also how many times the magnet may become disconnected from their head through the cochlear implant software in order to support you to maximise their use.
Cochlear implant usage is the most important factor for a child’s progress.
How quickly can you fine tune the processor?
Generally, it takes longer to be able to fine tune a baby’s cochlear implant than an older child as their responses are more difficult to gauge and they have a shorter concentration span for testing.
It is common to only be able to programme or test one ear at a time during tuning sessions until we have reached a stable programme or the child has reached an age where they can focus on a task for a longer period of time.
Tuning sessions can be very long and so short breaks for your child are often provided in order to maximise the amount of tuning and testing we can achieve in one session. We can also arrange shorter appointments within close succession if this is more appropriate for your child.
For older children, we are usually able to fine tune their programmes more quickly and they can also tell us what it sounds like in order for us to make helpful changes.
What if other people are expecting my child to hear everything clearly and quickly?
Few people understand about cochlear implants. Sometimes, family members and friends may expect that the implant will restore your child’s hearing to normal. Other people may or may not be interested to learn more about the cochlear implant.
Either way, it may help if you arrange a meeting to show people the device and discuss how it works and what your child may be able to hear with it. This way, you will be able to educate them about how they can help communication between them and your child.
In addition, your keyworker and, or local QToD may arrange joint virtual training to your child’s nursery/school. This training will be to show them how your child’s cochlear implant processors work and also basic troubleshooting.
How can I help improve what my child hears with the implant?
Helping your child to learn and understand the sound they hear through the implant takes time, patience and perseverance. Each child will develop their listening skills at their own pace.
Over the first few months of implant use, as well as wearing the processors as much as possible and having the implant programmed, your child will have appointments with their cochlear implant keyworker and local professionals.
These sessions will focus on hearing and listening skills. It is extremely important that both you and your child play an active role in these sessions and practice their techniques in your everyday routines to facilitate your child to become acclimatised to an array of both speech and environmental sounds.
This will help to develop their hearing and listening skills in different environments and help them to achieve their full potential.
If you are concerned about the progress for your child at any stage, please talk to a member of the implant team
Useful listening tactics
Use your face and eyes
Make sure that your child can see your face when you are talking to them. Parts of speech may be heard with the cochlear implant and part of it they may be able to lipread or deduce from facial expression.
Try to position yourself so that the light falls on your face. Explain to people who are talking to your child that it helps to be able to see them when they are talking.
The communication environment
The physical environment both at home or when in nursery/school can make a difference to how easy or difficult it is to hear what people are saying to your child.
For example a room with lots of hard surfaces (tiled floor, no soft furnishings) will generally be more challenging to hear in compared to one with carpets, table cloths, soft chairs, curtains etc.
This is because sound waves just bounce around on hard surfaces and can give an echo-like sound quality. This can be made even more difficult if there is also a high ceiling.
Background sound and music can also make a more challenging listening environment as these sounds will mask quieter sounds and speech.
If you notice that communication is better or worse than usual in any situation try looking around to find out why this may be so.
Bimodal hearing
If your child has one cochlear implant, there may be a compatible hearing aid they can use in their other ear. Your audiologist will discuss this with you if it’s appropriate.