The NIU Department of Communicative Disorders and Graduate Colloquium Committee will host a panel seminar on cochlear implants, devices that allow deaf and hard of hearing people to hear sounds through electrical stimulation on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon in Room 110 of Wirtz Hall.

The panel will look at advances in cochlear implant technology, said professor of audiology Joseph Smaldino. The panel seminar will feature four members of the Cochlear Implant Team from the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center.

Changing as technology grows, cochlear implants have allowed deaf and hard of hearing people to hear sounds since their invention and if the implant is given to a person at a young enough age and used correctly, a the individual will be able to better develop the ability to speak.

Initial controversy

Cochlear implants were initially met with caution by the Deaf Community, just as hearing aids were when they first came out, said Maggie Cormier, a counselor in the program for hearing impaired who is also hard of hearing. Many individuals in the Deaf Community were afraid cochlear implants were an extension of the attitudes of the hearing community, she said.

Parents face the difficult decision of whether or not to implant their deaf or hard of hearing children. In the documentary “Sound and Fury” Cormier shows her American Sign Language Classes at NIU, two deaf parents have to decide whether or not to implant their deaf daughter and risk the daughter choosing to live only in the hearing community.

She feels the deaf or hard of hearing individual should be the one making the decision about getting a cochlear implant, Cormier said.

Attitudes about cochlear implants in Deaf Community are changing

Opinion of cochlear implants has changed as their technology has changed.

Neonatal instrument screenings, advanced hearing tests and the identification of genes that may lead to deafness has led to quicker identification of children who are deaf or hard of hearing and quicker follow-up times, Smaldino said. People are being given cochlear implants at increasingly younger and younger ages, sometimes at 12 months or less, he said.

Cochlear implant technology has also changed so that installing them does much less damage to a person’s inner ear than ever before, Smaldino said.

An important decision about cochlear implants

He feels that choosing whether or not to give a child a cochlear implant is a personal decision, Smaldino said.

“[Being deaf] limits you a little bit… because it’s a hearing world,” Smaldino said. “If a parent really wants their child to do the best they can in life, I would think a parent wouldn’t want to keep [a deaf child] in the deaf world.

Becky Salamie, a senior public health major who is has been deaf since she was 3 years old, decided to get a cochlear implant when she was 9 years old. She liked the implant because she could hear sounds such as doorbells and telephone ringing and she could tell when people were talking from behind her.

Despite these benefits Salamie decided to stop using the implant when she was 13 years old.

“I could not hear words at all when I was using the implant, I could only hear sounds” Salamie said. “I believe people can still be part of both the hearing and the deaf world even though they get a cochlear implant.”

Everyone invited to seminar

Smaldino expects about 50 to 75 people to attend the cochlear implant panel seminar, including many communicative disorders majors.

The Department of Communicative Disorders hosts one or two Graduate Colloquium Committee seminars throughout the year, and the seminars are funded by graduate student fees and the Department of Communicative Disorders, Smaldino said. Everyone is invited to the Graduate Colloquium Committee seminars.