Implant opens world of sound for 10-year-old (www.azcentral.com)
Seth Muller
Arizona Daily Sun
Aug. 22, 2003 12:00 AM
FLAGSTAFF - When a boy took a wild leap into the Radisson Hotel swimming
pool, the sound of the splash reverberated off the hotel's walls.
Ten-year-old Emily Crawford had her back to the pool, but the sound of the
splash startled her. She whipped her head around and her long, blond locks
followed.
"See, she heard that," said Emily's mom, Mary Crawford.
Two months ago, Emily was deaf.
In early June, Emily underwent surgery for a cochlear implant at the Mayo
Clinic in Scottsdale. The sound processor that is connected to the implant
was activated on June 23. After three return trips and adjustments to the
hearing aid that works with the implant, Emily has been reintroduced to the
realm of sound after living almost all of her life in profound deafness.
Now, both Emily and her mom are learning about the miraculous sense of
hearing.
"One day we were walking and she said, 'I hear the wind,' " Mary Crawford
said. "I just thought that was amazing."
Mary Crawford has introduced Emily to the sounds around her home and
neighborhood. Emily has heard dogs, the television, car horns and the
doorbell. She has even picked up on the sounds of crickets.
"I like hearing people talking the best," Emily signed, still not ready to
use her voice.
While Emily doesn't quite connect the sounds of words with their meaning,
she is enjoying the enhancement of sound. She went to see the movie Finding
Nemo, a highly visual computer-animation film about a clownfish in search of
his lost son. But more important, she went to hear the movie.
Emily is working with speech therapists at Northern Arizona University this
summer to learn how to talk, now that she can hear. It's the second and most
challenging part of the process.
It usually takes about a year for cochlear implant recipients to learn how
to speak, but Emily is progressing quickly. At a session in July, she
repeated a seven-word sentence. She most likely will not have speech
mastered by the time she returns to DeMiguel Elementary School in the fall,
but she will hear and start to understand the words of her fellow
fourth-graders.
Even after Emily learns speech, she said that she wants to continue using
sign language and her skills as a lip-reader. A number of her friends have
learned sign language to communicate with her, and in some cases, to serve
as interpreters.
Mary Crawford said she initially did not want to consider the cochlear
implant for various reasons, including the $50,000 cost that her insurance
would not entirely cover. But she and her daughter have no regrets now.
Once the decision was made, students and teachers at DeMiguel helped with
fund-raising.
Although Emily is the first child in the area to receive a cochlear implant,
the surgery and device are becoming more popular.
Studies of students with cochlear implants indicate that all of them improve
their speech and communication skills, and this often means better grades
and better overall school performance.
Mary Crawford said her daughter continually earns the title of miracle
child. Emily was born prematurely, weighing only 1 pound, 11 ounces. Her
footprint was about the size of a thumb.
She spent four months in incubation, and was put in a special unit because
she was highly sensitive to sound. Somehow, during the incubation or her
early development, she lost her hearing.
But now she has it back.
Copyright
1998 Northern Arizona University, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED