Today's cochlear implant myths and facts post has been challenging to write. An important distinction must be made clearly. People with different perspectives might say that "CIs work!" or "CIs don't work!" Which is correct? The answer depends upon how you define "work". 
CIs provide access to sound. They are highly effective for this, and almost every person who uses a CI hears more than they would with a hearing aid.
If you are a CI candidate and your expectation is better hearing than you would have with a hearing aid, that is realistic in most cases. But if your expectation is "normal" hearing and no difficulties with listening, that is not realistic.
For most deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) people who are CI recipients, CIs work for providing better auditory access than hearing aids. Whether they work for other purposes (like language development) depends on the individual. But outcomes are not just a matter of luck.
Some factors that influence outcomes are language skills prior to implantation, age at implantation (for children in particular), how long the person has been deaf, cause of deafness, medical conditions and additional disabilities, ...
... residual hearing before and after surgery, having/not having a strong support system, aural (re)habilitation, and previous hearing aid use. Future research may reveal more factors that affect CI outcomes.
Good outcomes can never be guaranteed, even for people who are ideal CI candidates. What "good" means also depends upon a person's goals and whether they are realistic.
Many DHH children develop spoken language with CIs, but this is not guaranteed. No audiologist or other professional can predict an outcome with certainty. For any CI candidate, expecting freedom from all listening struggles is not realistic.
Will you be able to watch TV without captions? Understand speech on the phone Understand spoken language without speechreading Enjoy music? Maybe, or maybe not. No two CI users have the same experience.
The short version of all of this: the claim that "CIs don't work" is misleading. But the claim that "CIs work" can be misleading too if realistic expectations aren't part of the discussion.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
