From Jamie Berke,
Your Guide to Deafness.
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A forum member whose child was scheduled to receive a cochlear implant asked for advice on how to prepare her child for his cochlear implant surgery:

"I am especially interested in how you prepared your child for the surgery. We have talked to our son about implants, and he has friends at school with implants, but we have not told him yet that he will be getting one in May. We don't want him to be stressed over the thought of surgery, but also don't want to wait until the last minute to talk to him about it either."
— TRISH538

Selected responses are below.

"At AG Bell's July 2000 conference, I believe someone from the John Tracy Clinic had either a presentation or a booklet on preparing a child for implant surgery. You could check their website at http://www.johntracyclinic.org/."
—GREG
"Our hospital allowed a parent to stay overnight. Although they said it could not be in the room, the nurses said nothing as my wife slept in a chair next to my daughter's bed. That was really helpful and if you can arrange for a parent to be able to stay overnight that will calm any fears your child may have.

As your child already knows other ci kids that should be helpful since he has a frame of reference that they already went through the surgery and are ok. Our daughter was 2 1/2 when she got her ci. We explained the fact that she had to go the hospital and have the operation and stay overnight in the best terms we could. Obviously it was not a technical explanation but we made it a very positive sounding one. We also let her know that we would be there with her."
—RICKAOB
"Over the past 4 years teaching, I have had about 8 students who received cochlear implants while I was their teacher. My students were very excited about getting a cochlear implant because I had one too. The age ranges of my students were 5-13 yrs of age. With the younger students, I shared a coloring book made by Clarion called, "Jamie Gets a Cochlear Implant." It is a storybook and a coloring book all in one. It starts with a brief summary about Jamie's hearing impairment, her visits to the audiologist, pre-op testing, the surgery, the hook-up, and a summary of what Jamie is able to hear with her cochlear implant. I recommend this coloring book for all young children. You can also play doctor and do the very same steps. With my older students, I shared my personal pictures of my own surgery. They had enough language to understand about going to the audiologist and being evaluated. I showed them books about a MRI machine and that the purpose of the x-ray was to make sure that the cochlea was operable. I had pictures of each step during the surgery- shaved behind my ear, laying on a stretcher, waking up in the recovery room with bandages, in a private room with bandages, and a picture of myself without the bandages. After they had their surgeries, I explained the process of the hook-up."
—PUDDYCAT701
My 4 and a half year old son is about to go in for his second implant next week. he lost his hearing in august 2004 due to pnuomoccocil meningitis and received his first implant in december and is working miraculously. i have told him a couple of times the process as he needs to know it so he can get used to the idea. i tell him he goes in and gets a special medicine through a mask and he will go to sleep and i will be there all through the operation and be there when he wakes up.(even though it may not be the whole truth, it makes him feel safer)then when he wakes up everything is finished. oh yeah, i also promise him lots of treats ( i think he deserves it)
- About Visitor

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