ment, and rehabilitation services related to cochlear implants. By the end of the program's first year, the team from 13 months to 5 years old. never imagined her daughter would need these types screening with no indications of any issues. But just three months later, Florio was noticing that there might be a problem. would be no reaction," Florio recalls. "When I brought her to the pediatrician for her 4-month-old check-up, they did another hearing test, but they got no reading off of it." which measures the way the hearing nerve responds to dif- ferent sounds--confirmed that Annabella had sensorineur- al hearing loss. whether due to missing or damaged hair cells, or damage to the nerve pathway itself. A cochlear implant bypasses the process, transmitting sound from an external speech processor and transmitter to an internal receiver that gen- erates electrical pulses directly to the auditory nerve itself. early intervention program for deaf and hard-of- Pediatric Cochlear Implant Team to Florio, prompting her to do some in-depth online research about the team and cochlear implants in general. What she discovered had her reaching in 26--a protein found on the GJB2 gene that disrupts congenital sensorineural hearing loss. it was activated a month later; the remaining device was it was like a switch was flipped and everything started to go really quickly," Florio says. "She's trying to say her ABCs, she knows about eight different colors and the noises of dif- ferent animals--says `ooo' for `moo'--and has really start- ed catching up a lot quicker than what was expected. It's wonderful. She's babbling, making noises, and starting to sing. She knows the difference between when people are speaking and when they are singing. Every time she hears music, she stands up and dances." Annabella is involved in classes and therapy four days a twice-weekly classes where she interacts with other children who have hearing loss. She sees a member of the cochlear implant team every few weeks for "mapping," or adjustments to the sound programming of the device. Once mapping on both sides is complete, Annabella will return annually for any necessary tweaks to the programming, Florio says. procedure and then you're done," he adds. "The process is very labor-intensive after the surgery, and a committed team is needed to help lay the groundwork for success." nately there is a lot of support from the team. They are not in it alone," he says. Department of Pediatrics work with the program to help families understand the developmental and cognitive poten- tial of their young child, consider potential obstacles, and help them cope with the stresses and anxieties associated with the procedure. After surgery, they also are available to assist as children learn to understand new sounds and adjust to life with their implant. |