Hearing enhancement implants have been turned on, so those two children, who had been operated at the University of Debrecen in August, are already hearing sounds.
They were the first (the children are 1.5 and 3.5 years old) in Hungary to receive special hearing aids that also significantly improve speech development. Six weeks after the intervention, on the 24th of September, the external units were installed and the hearing aids were turned on.
One of the children, Benjamin, was completely healthy at birth and he also learned to speak. His parents noticed last year that the boy’s hearing was getting worse, and unfortunately he stopped both speaking and hearing last year. Traditional hearing aids could not help him, but when the newly developed hearing enhancement implant was turned on, Benjamin immediately sensed the sounds of the outside world.
“When we turn on his hearing aid, we gradually raise the volume, so we can see what the child’s reaction is” – said Ferenc Kunkli, electrophysiological engineer at the University of Debrecen.
One of the specialties of the new hearing enhancement implant is that it promotes effective speech comprehension, even in noisy environments, allowing faster speech development. Without the device, children would probably have remained deaf and even completely silent throughout their lives.
Source and photos: www.unideb.hu
