Basic therapy

... in adults

The provision of a cochlear implant (CI) means an enormous increase in the quality of life for most of those affected: they can hear again and, more importantly, understand language. Before that happens, however, it takes some time to get used to the new and unusual listening impressions with the CI. This process is significantly accelerated by practicing, practicing, practicing. For this reason, the Hannover Medical School (MHH) offers patients who have been provided with a CI a five-day basic therapy at the German Hearing Center Hanover (DHZ).

A typical basic therapy week consists of eight successive stages, which are individually tailored to the patient's learning progress with different levels of difficulty:

  1. Exercises for general sound and noise differentiation
  2. Exercises for speech recognition
  3. Consonant distinction
  4. Understanding numbers
  5. word comprehension
  6. sentence comprehension
  7. text phrases
  8. To phone

In some cases, rehabilitation may also be required to support basic therapy - this is weighed up with you as the patient and the therapist, when this makes sense. For this purpose, a special collaboration was developed with the Wilhelm Hirte Cochlear Implant Center (CIC) in Hanover and the clinics in Bad Nauheim and St. Wendel.

... in children

Four to six weeks after the cochlear implantation, the speech processor is adjusted and hearing-speech training begins. This takes place either in the German Hearing Center Hanover (DHZ) or in the Cochlear Implant Center (CIC) "Wilhelm Hirte" (headed by Dr. Barbara Eßer-Leyding). During the inpatient stay after the CI operation in the ENT clinic of the Hannover Medical School, the so-called headset is put on the child's head on a trial basis (“test concrete”). At the beginning of the actual adaptation of the speech processor, the children with one parent are admitted to the ENT clinic of the MHH, in the CIC or in a nearby hotel.

Under child-friendly conditions, the speech processor is adapted and the electrodes are gradually activated. In a continuous development process, the child can gain initial listening experience and expand it over time. Through the community with several children and the conversations of the parents with each other, experiences can be exchanged, mutual support can be achieved in the hearing-language training and thus achieve the necessary intensification. The stays in Hanover include one-week or half-week periods. At the beginning, these stays are staggered, towards the end of the entire therapy period at greater intervals.

The pedagogical concept in Hanover is based on the special CI experience of our clinic since 1984. The systems can be optimally used in children to ensure very good hearing path maturation. We also use the therapeutic possibilities of auditory-verbal therapy (AVT). This therapy content is conveyed in the DHZ and can be connected well with appropriate therapists in the patient's home.

The therapy successes are checked at regular intervals using standardized tests.

The local educational institutions, i.e. the early childhood and hearing impaired institutions and the state education centers, are a further partner and of equal importance. The therapeutic measures already started there before the implantation must now be intensified and continued with the help of the CI. Since these facilities generally look after the children over a period of several years, they are of particular importance in the overall concept of CI care.