Question
My daughter who is now 21 months of age recently underwent cochlear implant surgery and the processor was turned on July 28. My question is how often would she require speech therapy? Right now the therapist is recommending once a week. Is this sufficient? When would I need to increase the number of sessions? My second question is how often would a MAP be required? I was given to understand that it needs to be done once a month for the next year and in India they claim that it should be done every week for the next 6 weeks.
Answer
It is not possible to comment on the frequency and/or duration of therapy without knowing the child's hearing history and characteristics. Please reference the HOPE Note on this topic available at www.cochlear.com/HOPE that does offer some guidance. Also check out our archived HOPE offerings on auditory therapy post CIere are many!
MAPping varies as every implant center is different and may modify any schedule they give based on how the child responds to the device. Please contact your local or current CI center for guidance.
Donna Sorkin, M.A., is Vice President, Consumer Affairs at Cochlear Americas. In that capacity, she leads a range of activities at Cochlear aimed at the broad life needs of the cochlear implant community including appropriate educational options for children, early intervention, accessibility for people with hearing loss, and insurance reimbursement. Donna was executive director of Self Help for Hard of Hearing People from 1993 to 1999 and she served as executive director of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing from 1999 to 2001. She was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Access Board in 1994 and was re-appointed to a second term in 1998. She also served on the National Institute on Deafness (National Institutes of Health) Advisory Board and has advised numerous U.S. businesses on accessibility for people with disabilities. She has been an enthusiastic cochlear implant user since 1992.
Janet Clarke, Au.D., has been a cochlear implant Audiologist for 15 years, 10 of which she has been at Cochlear Americas. She has been a Clinical Applications Specialist, a Product Validation Audiologist, and is now a Clinical Educator in Cochlear's Professional Education department. Previously, she was a clinical Audiologist/cochlear implant Audiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received her Masters in Audiology at Purdue University, and her Au.D. from the University of Florida Distance Learning Program. Janet currently resides in Denver, CO.
For more information about Cochlear Americas, visit their website at https://www.cochlearamericas.com/index.asp or the Cochlear Web Channel on Audiology Online.
