Time to understand

[Monica]

Time frame of understanding speech with a new cochlear implant and what is the fastest way to relearn words that are being spoken everything I hear now is muffled and hard to understand

[Mary Beth]

Hi Monica and welcome!

 

If you look under our aural rehab topic you will find lots of helpful suggestions about how to train our brains to interpret the input from our CI.  There are many free apps and websites that are very helpful.

 

Your other question is harder to answer because everyone's journey is unique.  I have been implanted for a bit over two years on my right side and about a year and a half on my left side.  Each of my ears took their own CI journey in their own way but ended up in exactly the same place and test out almost identical to each other.  In life, they are very balanced.  When we work on aural rehab daily, we can see improvement as each week passes.  That encourages us to continue putting in the time on aural rehab,  Even if there was a specific length of time that it took on average for users to perform well with their CI, there would be people who took less time than average and people who took more time than average.  Many times you read that it takes one year but I still see areas of improvement and I am two years out so I don't believe that.

 

it takes aural rehab AND a good MAP AND time to reach our best functioning with our CIs.  Keep a list of what sounds good and what sounds not as good and share that with your audiologist at your next appointment.

 

Which processor are you using?

 

Wishing you the best.