Appendix A - Questions when Considering an Implant

• What benefits do I want for my child with a cochlear implant that are not possible without one?
• Have I been adequately informed about ASL and Deaf culture and considered it as a viable and legitimate alternative to cochlear implants?
• What auditory performance levels and speech intelligibility levels do implanted children obtain?
• What do I do if my child does not achieve the average level of performance of implanted children? Do I have a fall-back plan?
• Are the reported advantages of early implantation enough to outweigh letting my child make the decision for themselves later when they are more mature?
• Have I considered the possibility that something could go wrong during the CI surgery?
• Am I prepared mentally, physically, and emotionally for the work ahead of me to allow my child to get full benefit from the implant?
• Does the fact that your child will not be able to play contact sports safely with an implant make any difference?
• Are you prepared to deal with static electricity concerns for the implant?
• Can you handle the daily speech processor check and ordering replacement parts when necessary?

next topic previous topic Return to home page