Cochlear Implant Counselling
What’s Cochlear Implant Pre-Counseling?
Cochlear implant pre-counseling is what happens before a recipient or their family will formally decide to receive a cochlear implant. The most common evaluations are medical and audiological. And, depending on the recipient, other meetings and assessments might be held with hearing professionals.
These are important because their results can help to give you an idea of what to expect during and after receiving the implant. The professionals can help set realistic expectations, and find out if there are any special factors that should be addressed during or after the surgery. To give you an idea of what these factors could be, here’s what a professional will look out for in a pre-implantation meeting.
For children:
- How old the child is
- If he or she were deafened before, or after, learning to speak
- The cause of the hearing loss
- His or her cognitive skills
- His or her behaviors, like how well he or she can focus and pay attention
- If there are any other disabilities
- How much benefit he or she gets from hearing aids
- The rehabilitation programs that will be available after surgery
- What school he or she attends
- The amount of parental involvement and support
For adults:
- How long he or she has been deafened
- His or her cognitive skills
- If there are any other disabilities
- How much benefit he or she gets from hearing aids
- The rehabilitation programs that will be available after surgery
- How committed he or she is to doing rehabilitation exercises