Qualitative Investigation on the Effects of Wearing Cochlear Implants in Adults with Acquired Profound Hearing Impairment

From the Viewpoint of the User's Daily Life

Abstract

We investigate the qualitative effects of wearing cochlear implants in two adults who developed acquired profound hearing impairment at different stages in their lives: in infancy and during adolescence. We recorded and examined narratives with the patients as part of their rehabilitation over a period of 2 years and 6 months. The results were as follows:
1) With regard to speech communication, both of the patients described an obvious improvement in their ability to recognize the “speaker's vitality affect” and “meta-communication”, or the ability to recognize a proposition through changes in speech patterns. The patients attributed these improvements to better recognition of supra-segmental features in speech, like rhythm, accent, speech interval, voiced pauses, etc.
2) Improvements in the ability to hear natural environmental sounds, especially sounds associated with special aspects of Japanese society or culture, (e. g, feeling the arrival of spring after hearing the song of a Japanese nightingale) contributed to a subjective improvement in the patients' quality of life.
3) Differences in age at the time of hearing-impairment onset might affect the quality of social-cultural experiences, with substantial improvements, achieved through the use of cochlear implants.