What happens if...?

[nonpareilpearl]

Hello, I am new here and I was just reading around about CIs and HAs - especially the thread(s) by jesse. I was wondering if there was any instance of a child who was misdiagnosed with hearing loss who either went through with CIs or HAs? If so, what ended up happening to them?

Sorry if this seems to be a silly newbie question

 

[Anij]

Hello, I am new here and I was just reading around about CIs and HAs - especially the thread(s) by jesse. I was wondering if there was any instance of a child who was misdiagnosed with hearing loss who either went through with CIs or HAs? If so, what ended up happening to them?

Sorry if this seems to be a silly newbie question

Over many years on a number of MBs and in "real life" I've know of at least three parents who were told (via multiple evaluations) their infants had severe/profound permanent bilateral SNL hearing loss ... were fitted with HAs , looking into CI were "almost there" and then found the infants actually had mild/mod bilateral .... it's certainly the exception and is rare - but it does happen. Many of them drifted off the boards - because their infant was "only mild/mod" ... so I have no idea where they are now, but I expect that they will "reappear" when the infants reach school age.

edited to add:
Also - in the early CI days when implantation almost always destroyed any residual hearing in that ear - we'd never know if they were misdiagnosed, post surgery they would be profoundly deaf, regardless of their previous hearing status (on the implanted side)

 

[Bottesini]

I think don't take chances until absolutely sure.

 

[Bebonang]

This is a very good question to ask on the thread. You make a good point on that one. Lots of children including me can get misdiagnosed with other defects along with hearing loss. That is why it is too early to diagnose for the babies and younger children until they are about five years old or so for the hearing loss. Just have to be careful and take the time to notice something with your child when he/she not responding or respond some area of noise. Hearing parents want to jump into right away to notice something that cause them not to respond the loss of hearing but the problem is how much hearing loss does the child have? I think the hearing parents don't have enough information or don't understand the graph of where the sound is less than the normal sound. To be blunt, they just want to have chldren get back to normal hearing as possible and be like them. That is my opinion and I am Deaf.

 

[john57]

This is a very good question to ask on the thread. You make a good point on that one. Lots of children including me can get misdiagnosed with other defects along with hearing loss. That is why it is too early to diagnose for the babies and younger children until they are about five years old or so for the hearing loss. Just have to be careful and take the time to notice something with your child when he/she not responding or respond some area of noise. Hearing parents want to jump into right away to notice something that cause them not to respond the loss of hearing but the problem is how much hearing loss does the child have? I think the hearing parents don't have enough information or don't understand the graph of where the sound is less than the normal sound. To be blunt, they just want to have chldren get back to normal hearing as possible and be like them. That is my opinion and I am Deaf.

I would never wait until the child is five before any attempt to improve communication. Waiting until 5 is the pits and the child can even be even more language and speech delay as well. Mothers can tell long before 5 if the Child has any form of a communication issue.

 

[jillio]

I would never wait until the child is five before any attempt to improve communication. Waiting until 5 is the pits and the child can even be even more language and speech delay as well. Mothers can tell long before 5 if the Child has any form of a communication issue.

You don't have to wait until a child is 5 brfore attempting to imporve communication. If your child is thought to be deaf or even hoh via a newborn screening, one can begin to use sign immediately. Bebonang only suggested waiting until 5 to begin the process of surgical intervention. Begin using sign as soon as it is suspected that your child is deaf. By the time they are 5, they will have had a strong foundation in visual language. If, by some chance, it is found that they are not deaf, you have still done something that will facillitate their communication as hoh or hearing.

Surgery is irreversible and provides a hoped for benefit only if a child is deaf. Sign language is reversible, can be stopped withour medical complication, and provides a benefit for any child, deaf or hearing.

 

[SteveAUD]

There is no harm in putting hearing aids on a child if the evidence suggest he/she has hearing loss, but turns out they have less or no hearing loss. You simply take the hearing aids off if that is the case (no loss). It is more harmful to not do anything, then find out later the earlier tests were correct and now the child is way behind the 8-ball.

As far as CI, most physicians won't do it if there is any doubt. They basically have to have no response whatsoever on a couple of ABR's for the option to be considered.

 

[nonpareilpearl]

Thank you for all the responses!

I understand a bit more now about how CIs work, and how the child would be deaf if the surgery is done regardless of the previous status, but what about HAs? Maybe I misunderstand exactly what they do, but don't they amplify sound? If a child is not hoh (or etc.) and uses hearing aids, could they actually make the child's hearing worse?


(Edited for clarification.)

 

[jillio]

There is no harm in putting hearing aids on a child if the evidence suggest he/she has hearing loss, but turns out they have less or no hearing loss. You simply take the hearing aids off if that is the case (no loss). It is more harmful to not do anything, then find out later the earlier tests were correct and now the child is way behind the 8-ball.

As far as CI, most physicians won't do it if there is any doubt. They basically have to have no response whatsoever on a couple of ABR's for the option to be considered.

Absolutely agree with you. I didn't mean to suggest that HA should not be used in conjuction. Simply that irreversible procedures should not be entered into based on ABR alone, and that language and communication need to be addressed immediately, just as amplification should.

 

[Anij]

Thank you for all the responses!

I understand a bit more now about how CIs work, and how the child would be deaf if the surgery is done regardless of the previous status, but what about HAs? Maybe I misunderstand exactly what they do, but don't they amplify sound? If a child is not hoh (or etc.) and uses hearing aids, could they actually make the child's hearing worse?


(Edited for clarification.)

Yes, HAs amplify sound - so if there was a gross discrepancy between perceived and actual loss, the HAs could potentially cause additional hearing loss - much the same way long term use of mp3 players on high volumes will cause HL. How much, if any would be a very individual issue.

 

[john57]

Thank you for all the responses!

I understand a bit more now about how CIs work, and how the child would be deaf if the surgery is done regardless of the previous status, but what about HAs? Maybe I misunderstand exactly what they do, but don't they amplify sound? If a child is not hoh (or etc.) and uses hearing aids, could they actually make the child's hearing worse?


(Edited for clarification.)

If the child is not not HOH then the child should be able response to auditory simulation in the environment. It would be possible for anyone including adults to loss more hearing using aids not adjusted right. From my point of view the remaining residual hearing that I had when I was a kid would not help me in determining if I was walking and a car is sneaking behind me or a bike speed racer come in fast behind me on a foot trail unless I was wearing an aid. Hearing not being used is not worth preserving meaning that I have nothing to lose using aids. ASL is not going to help me in those situations. I did at the Dentist today found a worker that know sign langauage since most dentist are wearing face mask these days.
I can not stand a dentist drill noise with the aids on no matter program it is on and that was one of the few times that some sign language was helpful.