I understand the comments that have been posted, yet the idea twirls around in my mind, and I've seen other YouTube vids where folks have gotten an implant and begin crying when they can hear, that somehow, without ever hearing a word, they understand what is being said. Take for instance a person says "The Apple is Red". Would a deaf person who just received an implant understand what he/she was hearing? Or would it take a while for that person to put the sound "apple" into context of an actual apple? To me it looks like this young lady already knew what the word "tears" was and didn't have to ask anybody what was "tears". I hope ya'll understand what I'm trying to get across. This just fascinates me. Yea, maybe someone is off camera signing, yet I have a difficult time thinking that to be true. I think she could understand the words being told to her, yet in my mind she should not have the ability to put a spoken word together with an abstract idea. Odd how the mind works.
No they do not understand the words when they first get an implant. They learn the words as they hear. The cochlear implant takes many sessions to dial in just the right signal for a new user. As that process takes place the user's brain learns to interpret the signal. They do not hear like you and I based on sound waves. They hear based on the location of an electronic pulse in the cochlea.
People that have had hearing before going deaf can pick up pretty quickly once the brain has learned to interpret the signal. Even children that only heard for a short time before going deaf have an easier time learning to hear again. It can take longer for those that never had hearing.
So, if I have understood you, if a person was to stand behind her while she is wearing the implant for the first time and said "I love you" she would be able to hear a noise, but she would not understand what the noise was "saying"? Correct? After a few visits to the ear doctor and some fine tuning with the implants she would be able to understand when the person said "I love you".
Yes, that is basically how it works. But there is a lot of work for them to begin to understand words. The word must be repeated until the brain associates that particular signal to the word. The original model of the cochlear implants were called single channel because a single wire was inserted into the cochlea. Some people were able to learn to hear, and speak with those, but that was not the original intention of device. It was sold to allow the deaf to identify enviromental sounds like a car honking. The later versions of the implant like the Nucleus 22 had many more electrodes inserted into the cochlea, and thus stimulated a greater number of sites along it and helped the deaf get a greater range of stimuli. Many that could hear before they went deaf were able to very quickly become close to hearing again.
I know quite a bit about the implants because my youngest son was deaf from meningitis at four months old. He was the youngest implant recipient at the time at 2 years old. He could hear the environmental sounds the minute they hooked him up the first time. The doctors and audiologists were amazed at his first reaction. They had not expected it to be that drastic. His first was a single channel, and with a lot of spreech therapy he learned to speak with that unit. He received a multi-channel a few years later.
This is interesting. Your son, when he first heard an insect, like a bee, did he know that was a bee or just some sort of buzzing insect? Was he able to associate the buzzing noise with a bee or did he have to be taught the buzzing noise was a bee?
I understand the comments that have been posted, yet the idea twirls around in my mind, and I've seen other YouTube vids where folks have gotten an implant and begin crying when they can hear, that somehow, without ever hearing a word, they understand what is being said. Take for instance a person says "The Apple is Red". Would a deaf person who just received an implant understand what he/she was hearing? Or would it take a while for that person to put the sound "apple" into context of an actual apple? To me it looks like this young lady already knew what the word "tears" was and didn't have to ask anybody what was "tears". I hope ya'll understand what I'm trying to get across. This just fascinates me. Yea, maybe someone is off camera signing, yet I have a difficult time thinking that to be true. I think she could understand the words being told to her, yet in my mind she should not have the ability to put a spoken word together with an abstract idea. Odd how the mind works.
No they do not understand the words when they first get an implant. They learn the words as they hear. The cochlear implant takes many sessions to dial in just the right signal for a new user. As that process takes place the user's brain learns to interpret the signal. They do not hear like you and I based on sound waves. They hear based on the location of an electronic pulse in the cochlea.
People that have had hearing before going deaf can pick up pretty quickly once the brain has learned to interpret the signal. Even children that only heard for a short time before going deaf have an easier time learning to hear again. It can take longer for those that never had hearing.
So, if I have understood you, if a person was to stand behind her while she is wearing the implant for the first time and said "I love you" she would be able to hear a noise, but she would not understand what the noise was "saying"? Correct? After a few visits to the ear doctor and some fine tuning with the implants she would be able to understand when the person said "I love you".
Yes, that is basically how it works. But there is a lot of work for them to begin to understand words. The word must be repeated until the brain associates that particular signal to the word. The original model of the cochlear implants were called single channel because a single wire was inserted into the cochlea. Some people were able to learn to hear, and speak with those, but that was not the original intention of device. It was sold to allow the deaf to identify enviromental sounds like a car honking. The later versions of the implant like the Nucleus 22 had many more electrodes inserted into the cochlea, and thus stimulated a greater number of sites along it and helped the deaf get a greater range of stimuli. Many that could hear before they went deaf were able to very quickly become close to hearing again.
I know quite a bit about the implants because my youngest son was deaf from meningitis at four months old. He was the youngest implant recipient at the time at 2 years old. He could hear the environmental sounds the minute they hooked him up the first time. The doctors and audiologists were amazed at his first reaction. They had not expected it to be that drastic. His first was a single channel, and with a lot of spreech therapy he learned to speak with that unit. He received a multi-channel a few years later.
This is interesting. Your son, when he first heard an insect, like a bee, did he know that was a bee or just some sort of buzzing insect? Was he able to associate the buzzing noise with a bee or did he have to be taught the buzzing noise was a bee?