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Misdiagnosed as autistic, Grzegorz Płonka spent most of his childhood in a school for children with mental disabilities and was unable to speak. This changed when he got diagnosed with profound sensorineural hearing loss at the age of 14 and received his cochlear implant five years later. The Polish film SONATA shows his hearing journey and how a cochlear implant enabled him to become a talented pianist. In this article, Grzegorz tells us more about his childhood with hearing loss, his opinion on SONATA, and the mission he is on.

Preschool and school-aged children receiving implants may have had some hearing, speech, and language before implantation. But even so, the time after activation is an adjustment period as they hear both new and familiar speech sounds. Here are some strategies caregivers can use to support their preschool and school-aged children to achieve success with their speech.

It might be the first time that your child’s teacher is working with a student who has hearing loss or a cochlear implant. But as a parent, you’ve been learning and collecting information about your child’s hearing loss and device since their diagnosis. This puts you in the perfect position to support and offer advice to your child’s teacher. Here’s how to do it.

After cochlear implant activation, hearing your child say their first word is one of the early but powerful milestones along their hearing journey. But getting to that first word takes time, depending on many factors like how much access to sound your child had before activation. Here are some strategies that will help you lay a firm foundation to build your child’s speech through listening after their device is switched on.