Exciting news for those of us in Dallas. If you don’t know about HearSay, you can check out the link below. The below announcement was posted on the ProblemCI list, and I am reprinting it here without permission.
We are pleased to announce that HearSay has become a sponsored activity of the Dallas Cochlear Implant Program (DCIP). DCIP is a collaborative program of Children’s Medical Center Dallas, UT Southwestern Medical Center, and UT Dallas Callier Center. We wish to express our deepest appreciation to DCIP or their expertise and financial support. This relationship will greatly facilitate the mission of HearSay: Connecting Families of Hearing Impaired children. Thanks to the generous support of DCIP, HearSay will immediately egin providing babysitting during our educational programs, additional programs for our hearing impaired children and their siblings, and advertising to reach more families. We look forward to a wonderful relationship with the Dallas Cochlear Implant Program.
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HearSay
Connecting Families of Hearing Impaired Children
For more information please visit <http://www.dcip.org/> www.dcip.org; click on the burgandy “HearSay” links.
As the parent of a fifth-grader that makes A’s (when she wants to), I love the fact that it is possible for deaf children with cochlear implants to attend major universities in the hearing world. This cochlear implant technology has come so far, so fast.
Cochlear Americas announced today that five students have been selected to receive the 2008 Graeme Clark Scholarship awards - receiving up to $38,000 of financial assistance toward an accredited university.
Cochlear Americas said:
“This year’s scholarship winners were selected from an inspirational
pool of applicants who have benefited through use of their cochlear
implants,” said Chris Smith, President, Cochlear Americas. “We believe that
education empowers people to be more independent and to more fully
participate in the economic and social benefits of our society and are
happy to be able to provide assistance to such intelligent and successful
young adults as they move into the next chapter of their lives.”
It is mind-blowing for me to think about Alley taking philosophy classes at a university someday. It seem like we were just learning that she was deaf (that was 7 years ago).
Thanks to Michelle for sending me this information last week.
Wrightslaw is coming to Dallas.
WRIGHTSLAW Special Education and
Advocacy Training Conference
For Parents, Educators, Advocates, Attorneys
MARCH 13, 2008, Dallas
Mail-in registration open. Web registration begins this week.
http://www.wrightslaw.com/speak/08.03b.tx.htm
For a registration form and brochure visit: www.arcdallas.org
Presented by Pete Wright, Esq.Sponsored by The Autism Society of Collin County
Also supported by the Ruben Family Foundation,
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, The Arc of Dallas,
Speech TX/Julie Liberman MS CCC SLP, East Side Speech Clinic/Anne
Russell Bramlett MS CCC SLP, The Behavior Exchange/
Tammy Cline MS BCBA
I was “googling around” today and ran across this cat with a cochlear implant. Apparently, the Ryugo Lab reported on study they conducted in 2005 where congenitally deaf cats were fitted with cochlear implants. The goal was to determine how deafness impacts neurology — specifically “end bulbs.” End bulbs are the small encapsulated bodies at the end of sensory nerve fibers. So, they implanted some cats and studied their brains compared to deaf cats without implants. Based on their observations, they believe that deaf cats were able to repair some of the cats neural pathways. They write:
After 3 months of use, the synapses of auditory nerve fibers in these implanted cats were compared to those of normal hearing cats and congenitally deaf cats of the same age. In short, cochlear implants “rescued” the synapses of the deaf cats.
More importantly, it is a really cute picture. We have two cats, neither of which have cochlear implants. I’m glad our cats were not part of the study, because I am not sure how you get the auditory nerve cross sections shown in the study without making the cat very angry. Probably not a PETA-compatible study.
There are some “cochlear implant controversy” implications of this study as well. The study suggests that the neural pathways of congenitally deaf children “degrade” if they are not implanted. Cochlear implantation is suggested to reverse this effect. Does this mean that parents of deaf children should be “morally obligated” to obtain cochlear implants to prevent this degradation? I am certainly not saying that this is the case, but it sure raises some interesting question for this hotly debated issue.
As always, your comments are welcome.
I think I may have mentioned before that I am an electrical engineer at a very large electronics company. In fact, the company that I work for has provided integrated circuits to the cochlear implant industry in the past, and we have a lot of internal expertise in digital signal processing. So, I am always excited to hear about the “geek part” of cochlear implants. I love trips to the audi because I get a chance to see the latest stuff.
Now I am sure that most of you caught the January issue of Components in Electronics (I am sure you all have lifetime subscriptions). For the few of you that missed that riveting volume, there is a cool article about cochlear implant development in there. The piece discusses some work that is going on at Cochlear to interface between patients implants and “test stuff.” In the past, researchers have used a MATLAB-based program to stimulate implants and gotten feedback from the patients directly. Recently, they have evolved this approach and have developed some cool real-time systems for “trying new stuff out.”
As an engineer, it is obvious to me how critical this kind of work is. This is where the better implants and better coding strategies come from. The guys a Chochlear put it best:
“Without a good research platform, it’s impossible to test new approaches efficiently,” conclude Goorevich and Swanson. “Using the platforms that we have developed—and continue to develop—we have the opportunity to rapidly try new ideas, features, and algorithms that will help people hear better.”
You can check out the full article here.
My daughter lost her hearing at age 3 due to meningitis. One of the things I remember sitting in that hospital room was being thankful that she had survived the meningitis, but sad about the hearing loss. At the time, I did not know anything about cochlear implants. In fact, I had never even heard about cochlear implant technology.
I remember worrying about the fact that my daughter’s favorite video at the time was Peter and the Wolf. How could a deaf child possibly appreciate Peter and the Wolf, I fretted. It’s funny the strange things that you get hung up on during a crisis. Well, everything turned out OK. My daughter can hear quite well, loves Radio Disney, and is doing great in school.
What made me recall all of this is the recent report from DigitalSpy that KT Tunstall is planning to write music for her brother who recently got a cochlear implant. She intends to understand what beats and tones will be “scientifically” most pleasing for her brother to hear, and optimize a song around that. Very cool. She is quoted as saying “I’ve always wanted to write some music for Daniel, and find out scientifically what would be really pleasing to him. He loves beats. He tells me about these brilliant deaf raves he has been to, where all hearing aids come out and the volume is turned up.”
The Telegraph & Argus Listening for Life Appeal is attempting to raise £1.5 million to build a cochlear implant center at the Bradford Royal Infirmary in the UK. This week they are holding a charity football match to raise money for the cause. You can read about it here.
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