Newswise — To the delight of their parents, several children are hearing sounds for the first time in their lives due to a program just launched by the Children's Hospital at Montefiore. The program, the first in the Bronx, provides cochlear implants to children suffering from severe hearing loss.
"Our program is unique because it focuses entirely on children, taps the expertise of a multi-disciplinary team of pediatric specialists and, in addition, will be studying bi-lingual speech development," said Sanjay P. Parikh, MD, director of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Montefiore.
"We are very excited about examining the impact a bilingual environment has on speech development after a cochlear implant. There is no other study like it in New York," said Dr. Parikh. "Many of our pediatric patients will hear Spanish at home and English in school, so we want to track how their speech develops in both languages over time and compare their progress with monolingual children who have had cochlear implants."
The researchers expect to collect data this fall and to have developmental information on "babbling, early words and sentences" within a year. Multi-specialty Team Montefiore's 12-member cochlear implant team includes otolaryngologists, a neuro-otologist, audiologists, nurses, social workers and rehabilitation specialists. To identify potential candidates, various members of the team perform a thorough physical examination of the child, hold consultations with the patient's family, present each case before an interdisciplinary committee, conduct hearing aid evaluations and eventually identify a child as a candidate for an implant.
Rehabilitation and follow-up care are also coordinated through Montefiore.
New Technology and Cochlear ImplantsWhile cochlear implants have been available for two decades, recent innovations in technology have augmented the ability of the devices to improve sound quality and to fine-tune loudness and volume. The earliest cochlear implants, for example, had only one electrode that stimulated the cochlea, or hearing center of the inner ear, whereas today's devices have 24 electrode sites.
The cochlea is the spiral shaped organ of the inner ear that is filled with fluid and tiny hair cells. When sound enters the cochlea, it causes the hair cells to move, and this movement is transmitted as an electrical impulse via the auditory nerve up to the brain. When the hair cells are damaged, causing severe hearing loss, a cochlear implant can correct the problem. The implant bypasses the damaged hair cells and directly stimulates auditory nerve fibers.
About The Children's Hospital at Montefiore One of the most technologically advanced children's hospitals in the world, the $120 million 106-bed Children's Hospital at Montefiore opened in October 2001. Family-centered care is the Hospital's guiding philosophy and is evident in its family-friendly facilities and programs where parents play active roles in their child's care. Besides the new Children's Sleep Center, the Children's Hospital includes a new pediatric epilepsy center; a pediatric emergency room; an intensive care unit for children; a center for communications disorders to help children with speech, hearing and language problems; and a day hospital for patients who require several hours or a full day of treatments.
The Children's Hospital at Montefiore is located at 3415 Bainbridge Avenue in the Bronx and can be reached at (718) 741-CHAM (2426).
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