Originally Posted by MomToDeafChild

There just aren't that many adults out there who were implanted as young children to be able to report on this. The oldest of the 'implanted as young child' implantees (those implanted before the age of 4) are only college age now.

In my experience, it always seems like the ones I hear about who have decided not to wear their implants anymore (and frankly, these are all from hearsay since everyone I personally know with an implant is happy with it) were not implanted as young children, but as young adults, so of course their experiences will be different. These are people who have the experience of a before and after, and maybe the after wasn't all they were hoping for.

My daughter is 8 and loves her implant. Even when she had an implant failure last year and was without sound for 5 months she wore her processor EVERY DAY, all day. It is very much a part of her. I honestly could not imagine her ever taking it off and saying she wanted nothing to do with it ever again, since it IS so much a part of her life.

I think once the implanted kids of today grow up and can report for themselves, you will hear a lot less about people not wanting to wear their implants...