THE SHADDOX BOYS

Jacob and Elijah Shaddox are brothers. Jacob is 21 years old and just moved into an apartment with his girlfriend. He graduated from a technical college with an Associate's degree in Computer Maintenance. He works for a school district as a computer technician. Elijah is almost 18 years old. He is hearing impaired, has Tourette Syndrome, OCD and ADHD. He is a junior in high school. Elijah lives with his mom Mary and her wife, his stepmom. Mary has a bachelor's in deaf education and a masters in special education, and is an educational diagnostician. Life is always changing and this blog has chronicled many of these changes and will continue to do so!






Monday, February 22, 2010

Five Cool Things about Having a Cochlear Implant



This is a picture of Elijah with his cochlear implant processors and his cat Tiger. Tiger was a kitten when this was taken. I just looked for a picture that would show Elijah's processors. For those who don't know, the coil(round thing attached to his head) is a magnet. When surgery is performed a magnet is put under the scalp and its only purpose is to hold the coil in place to send the signal to the internal part of the implant.

These are five cool things about having a cochlear implant. Please add to it if you like in the comment section:

1. You can turn off your "hearing" whenever you like. My mom was getting onto Elijah one time when he was much younger and Elijah knocked his coil off(he only had one at the time) and shot my mom a look of "I can't hear you!".

2. You can attach magnetic darts to the side of your head, or any other magnet that will stick. We have found that refrigerator magnets don't generally hold.

3. You can demagnetize a credit card by swiping it near your magnet.

4. Your parents never really know if you heard them or if you just have "selective listening" like most other kids have.

5. Your parents are so excited about the things you say, that they don't really mind when you say your first cuss word. They are just excited you learned a new word incidentally. You can get by with this a few times with each new cuss word!

2 comments:

  1. This is a great post! I never knew about cochlear implants and I never knew how COOL they were. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. This post is very simple to read and appreciate without leaving any details out. Great work! Cochlear Implants

    ReplyDelete