Parents of deaf children often miss out on key support from the Deaf community By Pamela Renee Conley
An increasing number of deaf and hard-ofhearing kids in the U . S . are receiving cochlear implants – electrical conductors surgically inserted into the inner ear to stimulate the nerve responsible for hearing .
Fewer than 30,000 U . S . children had received cochlear implants by 2010 , while an estimated 65,000 children had them by 2019 . This is due to continuously improving medical and technological advances in cochlear implantation that make it cheaper and less painful to hear better than they would with other types of devices .
Yet most kids with cochlear implants still need significant help learning to understand and produce spoken language , much less learn material taught in lessons primarily meant for students who can hear . And they often struggle to fit in with peers who were born hearing , sometimes only finding a community that truly understands their life ’ s journeys upon reaching adulthood and connecting with other people who were born deaf or hard of hearing .
When parents choose to get
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