RALEIGH, NC. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — In the United States, as many as three out of every thousand babies are born with some degree of hearing loss — making it one of the most common conditions identified in newborns. But for many families, especially those in rural communities, access to specialists and early care can be a major barrier. One that significantly decreases their chances of developing speech and language.
Seven-year-old Cyrus Rhodes grew up hearing the world around him.
But that wasn’t always a given. He was born with severe hearing loss.
“I would say they’re magic ears and they give access to sound,” said Cyrus
The “magic ears” he’s talking about are cochlear implants. A small electronic device that bypasses damaged parts of the ear and sends sound signals directly to the hearing nerve in the brain.
Lisa Park, AuD, Division Chief at The Children’s Cochlear Implant Center at UNC, says, “Timing matters a lot.”
The first few years of life are a critical window for brain development.
“Brains are wired for sound. Kids who receive implants early tend to catch up,” said Park.
But even when families know their child needs help… getting to specialists can be a challenge. Cyrus’s family lives more than three hours from the nearest specialist.
Leslie Rhodes, Cyrus’s Mother, says, “We made it work.”
To close that gap, UNC created a mobile hearing clinic — a fully equipped RV that brings testing, programming and follow-up care directly to rural communities.
Melissa Anderson, AuD, Audiologist at The Children’s Cochlear Implant Center at UNC says, “The same care that you would get at our main center is provided on this bus.”
Park told Ivanhoe, “We’ve caught a couple of kids who wouldn’t have been able to get care without the mobile unit.”
The program is helping children across the state — including another remarkable patient: Tatum Lanier. She received her cochlear implant as a toddler. Ten years later … she’s thriving.
“It’s a lot easier to talk with my friends and hear … being able to hear the teachers,” exclaimed Tatum.
But her story is even more powerful at home. Her mother is deaf.
Melinda Lanier, Tatum’s Mom, says, “It means a lot to me because with my friends growing up I struggled even with hearing aids. So, I wanted the best for my children.”
For families like hers and Cyrus’s, cochlear implants aren’t just technology, they’re connection.
Cochlear implants can now be performed on babies as young as seven months old and early access to sound can play a critical role in how a child’s brain learns language. But experts say the window to help these children is small. After about age seven, it becomes much harder for the brain to develop the neural pathways needed to process sound. And right now, only about half of the children in the United States who could benefit from a cochlear implant actually receive one — far below some countries, including Australia, Sweden, and England, where the rate gets as high as 97 percent.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer; & Chuck Bennethum, Editor.
Source:
https://www.cdc.gov/hearing-loss-children/data/index.html
* For More Information, Contact: Nancy Bostrom
Manager of Research & National News
UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine
