How a cochlear implant works

Many of my friends and family have asked me how the cochlear implant works, so I posted a great video from Advanced Bionics that explains it very well. I also wanted to take the time to clear up some things related to K's C.I's.

A cochlear implant does not cure deafness, although it does give Baby K access to sound. He will always be deaf. When he is not wearing his C.I. external processor for example, bath time or sleeping he will not be able to hear. He also will not hear like or as well as a normal hearing person. Don't get me wrong they DO amazing things but they will never be as good as natural hearing.

When they turn on Kemper's C.I.'s for the first time they will will start off slow. Our audiologist says that she does not really want to see any huge reactions from K.( getting upset, crying) She wants sound to be a positive experience for K and does not want it to scare him. Most likely at first all K will hear are are a bunch of buzzing and beeping sounds. He has never heard sound, so it will not make any sense to him. His brain needs time to to learn how to associate meaning with sound. He will need to have lots of therapy to learn to listen and after time will be hearing what sounds close to normal speech.