By Carolyn, mum to bi-lateral implant user Lily, aged 9

Six months post switch on. Lily seems to have an another surge of clarity with her new implant. I am noticing a big improvement and her teacher of the deaf has noticed too.

I was trying to stretch her and tried the word ‘alacrity’ on its own. Initially I was disappointed when she thought I said electricity but it has since been pointed out that the words are so similar and that her new implant must be working brilliantly for her to be that close.

Also I had ‘top down’ explained to me. When we don’t know exactly what we have heard we match it to words we know and come up with the closest. So in some ways she won’t be trusting her new implant 100% yet and using her existing vocabulary store instinctively.

Another interesting piece of information is regarding her microlink in the classroom. She has had a microlink in each implant but the old implant’s has been lost. Lily is coping well with only the new implant microlink. I am still monitoring this as it is early days. It was Manchester’s idea and I think it may be a very good way of increasing use of the new implant.